Mystical Twilight
by T1gerCat
Summary: *Sequel to Charming Twilight* A strange vision takes Bella to supernatural central, commonly known as Mystic Falls. Who knew that 'Danger Magnet' could mean so much for her?
1. Introduction

Mystical Twilight

**A/N**: Hello guys and gals! Welcome to the sequel to Charming Twilight where pretty much nothing is what it seems. Special Thank you to **DeathDaisy** for taking time from her busy school life to read this for me :D

**A/N:** Still own nothing

Introduction 

_"We dealt with Victoria. You could at least be grateful. You are the first human we gave our hearts to and you stomped on them. Stay away from us"_

That was written and left for me at the Cullen house. I was upset but not enough to actually look for them. Instead I busied myself with vanquishing every little demon around Forks. In my defense, I didn't look for them, they all found me!

I was so bored... I had enrolled in College, major undecided, and had gotten a job as a barista and waitress at a club in Port Angeles (much to dad's chagrin) thanks to a glowing recommendation Victor had written me after working last year at the P3. As soon as the college let out for summer, I invited Angela for a night out.

Just my luck though. A warlock tried to get fresh with Angela even after she kept saying 'no'. He sensed me, I sensed his intentions and sex was _not_ one of them. I told Angela I'd go to the ladies room and vanquished the guy with a simple spell. No pound of flesh required, thankfully.

_'A silver SUV goes off a bridge. The plates read Virginia. _

_A guy with light brown hair dives after it fast. Too fast. He comes up with a girl. He performs CPR. The girl wakes up and he leaves her there calling 911. He never goes back. He walks away. _

_Another girl, looking identical to the unconscious one shows up. _

_"My boys" _

_She snarls. From her hands escape little electricity bolts and she kills the girl. Sirens are heard. Throwing the girl's body away she takes her place.'_

"Ah"

I gasped when vision returned to me. I panted. A hand landed on my shoulder

"Bella, are you okay?"

Angela asks and I can feel her alarm. I nodded and remembered my vision.

"I'm going for a trip"


	2. Another day, another satisfied customer

Chapter 1 – Another day, Another satisfied customer

Angela dropped me off at the police station. Dad was once again pulling a long shift.

"Hey daddy"

"What are you doing here bells? Did something happen?"

"Not really. You think you can run some plates for me?"

"Sure"

I gave him the license plates the car that went bloom while I presented him with the dinner I picked up for him.

"Car belongs to a Doctor Greyson Gilbert in Mystic Falls, Virginia. Where is that?"

He read out

"Bella what is it?"

"Angela and I were at the club. A warlock came on to her, I vanquished him and got a vision. A car with those plates went over a bridge to the water"

"What kind of a car?"

"Silver SUV"

He fumbled with the keys a bit more and turned the screen to me.

"That car?"

On the screen was the exact same car I had seen in my vision.

"I think so, it was very quick"

"Did you get a date?"

"No, but my visions rarely take a long time to happen. I was thinking of making a potion to go there right now. I saw the sign on the bridge. I know where it is"

"Be careful!"

"Yes, sir"

I placed a kiss on his cheek and grumbling he sent me home with a deputy and a cruiser. I rolled my eyes at him, hoping the 'girl' could be killed easily.

Mom had shown me how to make potions that mimic orbing as long as I had a very clear destination in mind. I could astral project but like Prue I'd be unable to use my powers with my astral self. Standing in the middle of the kitchen I put an extra vial of the bright green potion in my purse and determining my denim skirt and light blue top are decent enough I closed my eyes concentrating on the 'wickery bridge' sign and threw the potion on the floor.

When my body stopped feeling like rubber and I could push the vomit back down again I looked around.

I was in a forest of some sorts, near a lake, and there was a large number of highschoolers partying. I felt a hand rubbing my left buttock. It belonged to a guy with slightly dark skin, dark hair and eyes

"Hey baby, want a beer?"

He slurred. Yikes, another Tyler

"No thanks"

I looked around. Against a tree was the girl from my vision, one of them at least, on her knees in front of a cute blond guy. I'm not dirty minded, but it doesn't look like she's praying! At that precise moment 'Tyler' decided to grab my other buttock.

"Hey buddy. Back off"

He chose to kiss me instead. I bit his tongue as it entered my mouth and kicked him in the balls. He groaned and fell to his knees

"When someone says 'no' they mean 'no'"

I growled in his ear and turned to look at the girl again. She was gone.

"Damn it"

I walked to where they just stood and saw the silver SUV parked three people inside it. Choosing and feeling the freezing power in my hands, I tossed them up freezing them all in midmove.

"Sorry doc"

I mumbled reaching inside the still open driver's dour and popped the hood open. I know nothing about cars, only to add water and change a tire.

"Now what?"

Biting my lips I began humming the mission impossible theme as I emptied the oil tube and the water thing with telekinesis. Then I blew one of the plugs like things attached to a bigger thing. I really hope I don't kill them all!

I sat at a nearby bench and unfroze them. Doc grumbled when the car wouldn't start.

"Great Elena. First you sneak out on family night, then you get drunk at a party and now the car breaks down"

The man yelled annoyed. The girl, Elena, flipped him the bird behind his back and buried herself in the woman's arms calling her 'mommy'. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. The woman came to Elena's defense, muttered something to her husband who called someone to come pick them up.

"She needs to learn boundaries, Miranda"

"She's a kid Gray"

The parents started a fight. The father wanted the daughter to grow up; the mother viewed her as a baby. Before the fight could get bad another SUV pulled up to they and a woman with caramel colored hair stepped out of it. She didn't seem much older than the daughter actually. The small family piled in the new car and drove off. I don't know why I followed or why the car was driving slowly but I followed them.

At the middle of the bridge stood a tall brunette guy clad in total black. The car swerved to avoid hitting him and went off to the side. Automatically I froze the scene, including the car, the dark haired guy and the would-be rescuer. I ran quickly to them. The dark haired man was about to run away just like the rescuer was coming slower.

"This is insane! What do I do now?"

I'll save them one more time and if they keep almost die, let them. First thing first, the leather man

"From where he came,

Send him now

Make him forget

What went down?"

Wow, I suck at rhyming! At least it worked as leather man was surrounded by tiny orbs and taken away. I repeated the spell with the rescuer and telekinetically brought the car back to the bridge. Tired as I was I knew I had to stick by and see if it all worked. Taking one last look around I saw in the distance the other curly haired version of the drunk girl and quickly casted the spell on her too before unfreezing the family with a yawn. The car sped away

"Another day, another satisfied customer"

And it would be if my pendant didn't begin glowing like crazy. It was a triquerta laid on a bed of a tiny nexus. It was supposed to protect me and was a gift by the Halliwells, my mentors into witchcraft. I took it off as it began to glow more and burn.

"What do you want now?"

It began trembling, using itself as a pendulum. It acted as if it was attracted to something, like a magnet. My feet were killing me, making me regret not changing shoes when I went home. I may have fixed my balance issues but walking in heels for hours will never be comfortable!

I began walking.

On the other end of the bridge someone had forgotten a bicycle. Thank the deities for small miracles! I took off the high heels, put them in the tiny girly basket and mounted it. I let my pendant guide me once again.

I pedaled to the town, and then through a series of back roads till I reached the edge of town and there it was. An old, rickety place that looked like it should be demolished. My pendant shone like the sun but I felt ... off.

"Paige"

I called out. I felt strange, conflicted, like I couldn't breath, scared and yet powerful. What the hell is this place?

"Paige!"

She appeared in her PJ's rubbing her eyes

"Please tell me there is a good reason you woke me up. ohm nice skirt!"

"Paige. Focus!"

She stuck her tongue out at me before suddenly she stood straighter. I smiled

"What is this place?"

"Beats me. Can you feel this?"

"Yes, it's confusing, raw, powerful, and scary"

"Evil"

We said together.

"Do you have a map?"

"No. why?"

"I have an idea. Put your shoes back on."

I complied as she glamoured herself into wearing actual clothes and not her PJ's. Her eyes were shining.

"I missed being in action"

I laughed.

"Now what miss Paige?"

"Is there a convenience store around here?"

"How should I know?"

"You're snappy"

"I'm sleepy"

She rolled her eyes at my exaggerated pout and holding my hand she orbed us in a library. It was closed for the day. Behind the reception desk hang a large detailed map of the town.

"What are we looking for?"

"The five elements"

My eyes snapped to hers alarmed.

"I got water and earth, you?"

She asked pointing to the falls and the mountain

"I think I got fire and wood"

I pointed to a small set of hot springs and a big national park

"This could be metal"

She showed an old mine at the edge of the park. I furrowed my brow

"Paige what are we looking for?"

She chuckled

"A nexus"


	3. An evil Nexus

Chapter 2 – an evil Nexus

"A nexus. As in the nexus that's under the Halliwell manor?"

I asked her as she was busy drawing lines on a smaller, travel map. They all aligned in one spot.

"Yes, a Wiccan and spiritual nexus Bella"

Sitting down in a large table I pulled the shrunken Book out of my purse.

"Seriously?"

Paige asked. I half shrugged.

"If it's with me, then no one can touch it"

Passing my hand over it, it grew to its normal size.

"Where did you learn how to do that?"

"Acquired power. A super low level idiot shrank my truck; I barely had time to get out before I vanquished him myself"

"Did you get the car back in normal size?"

"Nope"

She chuckled. I found the entry about nexus'.

Nexus

A Nexus, often referred to as a Spiritual Nexus, is a point of incredible energy equidistant from the five mystical (or Wiccan) elements; earth, fire, wood, water, and metal. Usually located at the center of a pentagram formed by these elements, its power can be swayed either way, meaning that it could be a force of undeniable good or a force of undeniable evil.

In its pure form, a nexus is a shadowy energy that whirls as wildly as a tornado. When summoned by both Good and Evil, a nexus chooses the most neutral party present at the time since it cannot decide between good and evil.

"Judging by the way your pendant is glowing, they're identical"

I propped my head on my hand.

"Please don't tell me I'm gonna have to own it"

Paige made a point of staying silent.

"Great!"

After calling and talking Charlie down from his creeped out state, (since it's about 4 am and I've been out since 8pm) Paige and I stopped by the Magic school for a power boost and a visit in its majestic library.

"You will not go up against that thing yourself, young lady"

"Hello to you too mom"

A frantic Renée ran inside the room. I see the news went public.

"Bella no!"

"What do you want me to do mom? That thing is as powerful as the Halliwell one. If evil gets a hold of it, more that it already has, the whole world is screwed. I'm screwed! And not in the good way."

She exhaled.

"I'll be careful. I promise mommy"

"Last time you called me 'mommy' you were bitten by a vampire"

I smiled and hugged her close.

"I love you mom"

Folding the spell found in one of the older Books in the library, I was gone in a flash or orbs.

I stood in front of the half torn down house. Paige stood to my left, she insisted on being there just in case someone had to heal me. From a tree hang a rope swing swinging lightly in the afternoon breeze.

"What are you going to do?"

"I want to bring this thing down but there are souls, trapped in there Paige. I can't do it while they're there. That will make me worse than a demon"

I showed Paige the spell in the book I was planning on using. She read it carefully before shaking her head.

"Just so you know, when Phoebe tried it, it didn't work"

I smiled

"I changed a few things"

In my hands I had the Halliwell Book of Shadows and inside it a small pouch. I drew out a bunch of tied together rosemary, sage, eucalyptus and whale oil.

"Wish me luck"

"Spirits of the witches rise

Course unseen across the skies

Come to me and be set free

By my will, so will it be"

A large blinding white ball of light appeared and grew expanding from inside the house, lighting out the windows. I lit the wand of herbs and threw it at the ball

"Eimo

Dama

Sayto

Mundo"

The ball expanded even more and erupted exploding in million little balls that went to the heavens above us taking the half torn house with it too.

"That was so cool"

I breathed

"That was easy Bella. Too easy"

Paige warned. My smile vanished

"If I wanted someone to rain on my parade, I'd call piper"

I grumbled. Paige opened her mouth to reply but was knocked aside. Behind her stood a dark skinned woman, dressed in a black fabric that barely even covered her.

"Can I help you?"

Six months of working at Newtons ingrained nicety, what can I say?

"You can leave my family alone!"

She snarled pointing the ruins around us. Her eyes gleamed black, total black.

"Sorry, no can do"

She glared at me. I raised my eyebrows. Is she gonna glare me to death?

"Why isn't it working? Why aren't you writhing in pain?"

"You're trying a mental attack? Yeah that's not gonna work"

I exploded one of her hands. Another one grew at its place.

"Can't kill an invincible witch"

I smiled.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Witch of invincibility,

I have to sever,

Bitch, be gone forever"

She fell to the ground unconscious, liguiphied and seeped into it.

The ruins of the big house did the same thing. Paige opened her eyes.

"Of this house

Make a miniature

That is not

A caricature"

"So, you can really do that?"

Charlie asked as we both sat on the cruiser's hood watching as the pile of plywood became a small dollhouse replica of Charlie's house.

"Yep"

"What about personal gain?"

"I'm claiming a nexus for the good side. I bet they can let one slide"

"Think they can let two?"

He smirked

"What do you have in mind?"

"Your mother said I have to buy you a car for graduation"

"Did you?"

I smiled angelically. Dad did too and procures a keychain with a red convertible. I burst out in laughter


	4. Being neighbourly

Chapter 3 – Being neighborly

"You crack me up dad"

"I'm kidding Bella. We're changing the cruisers and with that I got a nice deal for a real car for you"

I blushed and shook my head

"You don't have to do that dad"

"I want to Bells"

"Okay"

"Do you need to pack or..."

He fumbled rubbing the back of his head. I shook my head, playing with the cute keychain

"No, everything is at the dollhouse. They will grow back to normal size at Mystic Falls."

I bit my lip.

"Are you gonna be okay, Bella?"

"Yeah, shouldn't be too different that San Francisco dad"

"I worry about you kid. In Phoenix and in California you had your mom. Now you'll be alone"

He looked even more upset, I didn't bother commenting that I was the one that usually took care of mom, not the other way around. Suddenly I had an idea

"How about this? I'll create a door between your house and mine. You can open it and get there any moment you wish. No heads up needed"

"You can do that?"

"Sure. How about the closet door under the stairs?"

"That sounds good, kid"

Charlie offered looking slightly relieved. Walking back inside the house, I drew a large triquerta on the door with my blood and I laid my palm flat on it.

"In this place and in this hour,

I call upon the ancient power.

Open this door through time and space,

Create a path for this same place"

The triquerta shone for a moment and the disappeared inside the wooden door.

"Just open it and walk right through"

"But not now"

"It will take you to the dollhouse now. No idea if I can grow a person to normal size"

I deadpanned feeling stupid as I saw and felt his mirth.

"Come on kiddo. We need to get you a car now"

Two hours later I found myself orbed in front of the empty lot with the nexus in Mystic Falls, lounging against the brand new cherry red, VW Eos Charlie bought me. I popped the trunk open, took out the miniature and put it in the middle of the lot.

"Bricks, woodwork and magic,

Turn this miniature

To something fantastic"

The ground shook slightly as the small miniature grew and built itself to the familiar two story, white house I only lived in sporadically and yet felt like home. I took a moment to make sure my pyrite crystals were still buried before taking the Book into the brand new attic. Remembering the trick pulled in the Halliwell manor I placed the book in its stand and placed my pendant on it.

"Magical lock,

Only for me unlock"

Smiling to myself I fastened the pendant around my neck and returning to the kitchen I began making cookies, thanking my lucky stars for having gone shopping two days prior to this mess. I should be neighborly after all.

Having changed to a pair of soft jeans, simple white spaghetti top and a bright red thin scarf tied around my waist. I put on my sunglasses and a pair of flat sandals I grabbed the house keys and the platter full of chocolate chip cookies.

Stepping outside I marveled at the difference the good aura brought to the lot. The dead grass all around had liveled up and was bright green, inviting me to start gardening and the dark aura making the house appear miles deep in the woods away from any civilization when in fact only a block away was another house. A house that under any circumstances could/would/should notice the change in housing.

I took notice of the black and white police car in the driveway, before knocking on the door making sure to smile pleasantly. A woman in her mid thirties opened the door, her short blond hair sticking unruly. She was dressed in jeans and a white tank top.

"Can I help you?"

Her tone was clear and serious however she felt tired and powerless. Phoebe had taught me to keep the empathy minimized and only allow it to flicker. I have to admit; suddenly I understand Jasper and his reluctance to be near us humans.

"I wanted to introduce myself and apologize for all the sleep you've lost because of me"

I said impishly. Her eyes widened.

"Excuse me?"

"I moved in next block. I'm really sorry if the crew working on it woke you up these days. I'm Bella Swan"

I extended my hand to her. Her eyes went to my house over my shoulder, frowned but then shook my hand.

"Sheriff Liz Forbes. Are you new to town?"

"Yes, I'm attending state college. Peace offering?"

I extended the plate. She looked at it, then me, then at the sun above us, before smiling pleasantly. She felt annoyed and suspicious.

"Why don't you join me for some tea?"

"It's getting late, aren't you busy?"

"Never for some tea and cookies"

Without waiting for a reply she disappeared inside the house. I sat down at a lawn chair knowing better than to barge at a house that isn't mine. She may shoot me! She returned feeling nervous and slightly apprehensive holding two glasses of orange juice.

"Here you go"

She handed me one. She kept her eyes trained on me as I took a sip.

"This is really good. Do you make it yourself?"

She felt immense relief and her rigid posture seemed to relax as she took a few sips of her own glass and a cookie.

"Yeah. Fresh oranges with a few select local herbs. The one thing I know how to do"

Slight mirth escaped her as she smiled sardonically. This woman is the female equivalent of Charlie; I thought to myself and took another sip to cover my chuckle. About an hour later we had gone through all the casual topics, the sun had completely set and knowing how tired Charlie is after a long shift, I excused myself with the excuse I had to get up early in the morning. She agreed and gave me their landline number.

"In case you need anything"

"Thank you sheriff. Goodnight"

I made sure I 'forgot' to take my platter with me as I walked away. I could hear my own footsteps. I need to add some lights around here.


	5. A new gig

Chapter 4 – I get a new gig 

My first night at mystic falls went by smoothly. I slept like a baby and woke up well rested. Deciding to drive to college and properly set up a schedule before checking the town I made myself a cup of coffee and munched a few cookies before hopping in the shower.

I decided to look as normal as possible, knowing that the small town gossip would feature me on its front page. I got dressed in a denim skirt that hit a bit below mid-thigh, a modest, halter, sky blue top and a pair of brown kitten heeled sandals. I applied some basic, soft makeup, grabbed my bag and keys and after some debating I left the Book at home.

I drove through the quiet, early morning traffic smiling to myself when I passed the town limits and headed to college. Virginia State university is located about thirty minutes out of town and if I'm lucky, I might just be able to schedule my classes so I'll be able to have them together either mornings, or afternoons.

The campus was big, with an enormous yard and surprisingly easy to get around. After an hour of visiting buildings and schools and thirty minutes of finding me an advisor I finally had a course schedule. It included my love of English and Education, Hospitality management, a couple psychology courses. Following my course lead from Seattle State University I combined three schools in one Major and two possible minors. I only hope the demon activities around here are not as busy as San Francisco.

I left the campus almost three hours later armed with my student ID and parking permit, an armful of student guides and information about my various classes (as if I didn't already own all of them) and last but not least, a slight headache and bubbling excitement. Sure I am a sophomore but, like dad said, it's my first solo time! Smiling I took a picture of my student ID and sent it to both mom and dad laughing when I got a picture of a tall stack of pancakes bathed in golden syrup from mom (my favorite back to school breakfast) and a picture of a no drinking and driving poster from dad.

Singing to 'Shake your tail feather' from 'Band from TV' I pulled into the high school's parking lot. For my education classes I needed to shadow an English or Literature teacher for the semester as part of my term paper (thank you 2 years of AP classes in all my schools). I parked in one of the few empty slots and almost crashed.

The car I had parked next to was a shiny silver Volvo. Its plates read 57E 6D3. Edward's Volvo.

"Perfect. Just fucking perfect. From all the small towns in the entire continent they show up here"

I let my head fall back against the head rest, tired, annoyed and most of all betrayed. The note I found at their house rang to my ears and I shook my head to clear it.

I'm not the same scared, useless kid they knew three years ago. I've grown up. I've matured. I'm the new fucking Charmed one!

With that motivational pep talk I got out of my car, locked it, barely resisted the urge to slice the Volvo's tires and walked inside the school. The sun was hidden behind a thin layer of clouds. How could they be outside?

I let the general feel of slight happiness as students either groaned about being back to school or were grinding against lockers, cheer me up and walked to the headmaster's office to talk about my assignment.

He saw no problem with me observing and assisting as long as I didn't disrupt any lessons and sent the secretary to call the English/History teacher who was also the football coach, before returning to the sports section of his newspaper. And here i thought that history teacher's only coached teams in Tower Prep!

Mt. Tanner showed up, looked at me from head to toe, decided 'I was too young but whatever' and had me following him to class. History, junior year. I resisted the urge to groan, I hate history! We walked in together, in a fairly large classroom. Looking around the first thing I saw was a copper head I know too well and a cooling fan.

I smiled to myself and pulled my hair up before walking fully inside the door making a point to stand in front of the fan and turning it on.

"...and this is Bella Swan. She's here from the university to assist. respect her"

he ordered. five heads snapped up at my name and at the fan hitting me from behind. I gave an angelic smile.

"Hello class"

Mr. Tanner sat at the large chair behind the teacher's desk and I pulled a chair to sit near him. He began hassling students about grades and jocks, I crossed my legs and took a moment to observe the students. The brunette who kissed me the other night was a mega jock and named appropriately, Tyler. By him sat the blond guy that the girl from my vision 'prayed' at the other night, also a jock, named Matt. behind them sat a dark skinned girl with the same high cheek bones and straight nose as the witch I had killed at the Nexus. I'll have to keep an eye out for her. Next to her sat a cute blond who acted ditzy and made a point to file her nails during class. On the seat in front of her sat a pretty girl with long straight brown hair. The girl from my vision or one of them at least. she leaned in Edward's arms who looked like the deer he usually eat and whose mouth, while half closed seemed to run a mile. the rest of the Cullens sat on the other end of the classroom. Alice looked and felt shocked, Jasper felt remorse, Emmett happy and excited and Rosalie... waves of happiness came escaped her.

I frowned. Weren't these the same people that left that note? I'd expect anger not happiness. Then I noticed that 'vision girl' kept throwing longing glances to a guy sitting in the front. spiky light brown hair, emerald green eyes. The rescuer guy from the bridge. the one who pulled her out and walked away in my vision. In turn he would look at her with equal longing as well, when he didn't send wondering glances at Jasper.

Weird and weirder...

"Once our home state of Virginia joined confederacy in 1861, it created a tremendous amount of tension within the state. People in Virginia's northwest region had different ideals than those from the traditional deep south. Then Virginia divided in 1863 with the northwest region joining the union."

Mr Tanner droned on. This man has the most boring voice ever. I could feel my eyes drift shut and every now and then I'd pinch myself just to remain awake.

"The Battle of Willow Creek took place right at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls. How many casualties resulted in this battle? Ms. Bennett?"

"Um..a lot? I'm not sure. Like a whole lot."

The dark skin girl, Bonnie, tried to save. I had to suppress my snicker while the rest of the class laughed loudly.

"Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Ms. Bennett. Mr. Donovan? Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jock stereotype?"

"It's ok, Mr. Tanner, I'm cool with it."

I was staring at the teacher. Boring he may be, but he sure has a way of insulting his students. Not that I mind, at least I'm not fighting sleep anymore

"Elena? Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town's most significantly historical events?"

"I'm sorry, I-I don't know."

Vision girl, Elena, stuttered as her eyes looked at Edward silently asking for protection. However he was looking at me, probably holding his breath as well.

"There were 346 casualties. Unless you're counting local civilians"

Vision savior guy spoke up

"That's correct. Mister . . .?"

"Salvatore. Stefan Salvatore"

"Salvatore. Any relation to the original settlers here at Mystic Falls?"

"Distant"

"Well, very well. Except, of course, there were no civilian casualties in this battle"

"Actually, there were 27, sir. Confederate soldiers, they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss. The founder's archives are, uh, stored in civil hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts. Mr. Tanner."

The whole class snickered. Elena looked at him with admiration, Jasper's mouth rose in a smile. My eyes returned to Stefan. Too fast reflexes and knows his history.

After class ended I was given a schedule by the teacher and left the lot in a hurry. Mostly I wanted to put distance between myself and the Cullens and secondly I needed to find out what is wrong with this town. Nexus. Witches. Cold ones. Something draws a lot of supernatural creatures here and my gut told me that this is only the beginning.

I decided to stop by the library and check the city's records and notable history. Found ziltch. Then I remembered the city hall and the founder's archives where with a few smiles and my student ID from college I was left alone in the archives.

Personal gain or not, I made a quick magical copy of everything and left. Most probably I will not need them but better safe than sorry. After dinner, I sat on my porch and went through everything.

Something sketchy had happened during the battle of willow creek.


	6. RIP Mr Tanner

Chapter 5 – R.I.P. Mr. Tanner

Next day I was determined to find out more. Starting with why was the town supernatural central besides the nexus being here, moving onto why was the one and only witch claiming the nexus for evil seriously weak ending with who's who in species.

Reading the founders journals the night before I had found out nothing. They said pretty much nothing to help me out and I had the distinct feeling they were 'touched up' after the facts as well. I thought about casting a spell to uncover their secrets but if there is one thing I learned from the Charmed ones, is that the longest way around is usually more fun.

So I put the books in my attic, put another layer of protection in the small room and stopped to grab coffee at the only place to eat or drink in this town before going to my morning classes. Main Street was full of police cars going up and down.

"Coffee please"

I told the tall dark skinned guy behind the counter and turned around to observe the scene. In one table sat the family I saved from the drowning, joined by a teenage boy and another woman in her mid twenties having breakfast together. Well, the mother was keeping the peace; the father was scolding the kids for getting drunk. In another table sat the blond girl and the witch from the history class I observed, the blond seemed to be drunk as well and upset. The witch was ignoring her as her attention was at a guy dressed in a suit reading his paper in the corner doing his best to remain out of sight.

"Here you go miss"

The waiter handed me a big enough coffee mug to swim in. I smiled pleasantly

"Thank you. What happened?"

I pointed to the sheriff going from one drunken teenager to the other looking more and more upset.

"There was a party in the woods last night and a high school girl was attacked. One of the waitresses at that. Both she and her brother work here, poor kids"

I tuned him out as we went on and on about how there is no father in the picture and the mother has gone off with a fling leaving the children to raise themselves. According to him, the girl, Vicki was a sophomore and she had it coming by flirting with everything male and he pitied the brother, a junior, for having to put up with her. She'd live though. I never cared much about gossip and I was always careful not to spread it but his tone had me gripping my swimming mug of coffee and struggling not to throw it at his eyes...

I almost chocked on my coffee seeing the other guy from the vision show up and order black coffee. I don't think he noticed me, luckily so I drank my coffee slowly people watching and making connections.

The brunette guy was eye flirting both Elena and Caroline. The witch averted her eyes and left the moment he stepped inside the establishment and so did the guy in the suit who looked happy. Elena flirted back smiling until her mother stood to leave and took her more than slightly drunk children with her. The caramel haired woman refilled her coffee and waved as they left. The father however walked to the sheriff and the two spoke for a while before he nodded and left as well. Liz left too taking her daughter with her and soon all teenagers were gone as the morning rush ended abruptly and... Oh crap it's time for school. Paying for my coffee I rushed out of the grill and almost ran over the caramel haired woman as she kicked her car angrily a few times.

"You okay?"

"Jones is gonna kill me if I'm late again"

"Greg Jones?"

"You have him too?"

She furrowed her brows

"Yeah and he's gonna kill me too. Want a ride?"

"Please?"

"Hop in"

The moment she closed her door we were off

"Jenna"

"Bella"

We talked friendly during the ride. She told me she's the baby sister of Mrs. Gilbert and that she was on her last semester at her PHD in Art History.

"I can't believe you're only 25. Do people get PhD's that young?"

I asked amazed and she laughed

"I had a bad breakup in high school and kind of ran away. I was never a grade A student but immersing myself in my studies helped dealing with it"

She shrugged. I nodded pulling to a slot and we both grabbed our crap and ran to the auditorium moments before class started.

After a long day of classes I returned to Mystic after making sure to move some classes around so that the days I'm observing don't overlap with my classes (like today) so I was free to keep the notes needed for this observing thing to work out.

Class was once again tedious (with more than half the students still intoxicated or with bad hangovers) as Tanner was harassing them far more than teaching them. It was obvious that he promoted the class to the students he had on his good side during football and demoted the rest.

Can't say it wasn't satisfying how he'd trap Edward too though. This is quite interesting considering Edward's mind reading cheat though. I filed that to ponder about it later on as the class was won over by Stefan (who showed up in a varsity jacket) and Jasper (who was quite clearly ignoring his wife and mate by sitting next to Rosalie).

'For people that split town and left me a cold message, they sure do an amazing job of not ignoring me now!'

I thought catching the pleasant looks on their faces and feeling nothing but joy from them. I returned it with an equally cool of my own and returned my attention to class.

I remained behind when the bell rang for lunch to tidy up some papers when I saw the watch Tanner wears forgotten on the table. I grabbed it, intending on finding where he is and hand it over but...

_8_

_The back of someone's head _

_Fireballs_

_14_

_Blood on gravel_

_Mr. Tanner with blood oozing from a cut on his neck_

_22_

_The brunette guy with blood on his chin and red eyes_

I gasped my vision returning. holding the watch tightly I ran out of the classroom and closing my eyes I tried to remember if I saw anything to help me figure out where the heck the attack would take place. Remembering Mr. Tanner was coaching I ran to the field but it was empty. Maybe the parking lot?

Making my way there I saw the numbers again. Science building was numbered '8'; the parking space on which Mr. Tanner was standing on was '22'.

"Mr. Tanner"

A voice shouted. I ducked behind a blue Prius and watched the scene unfold, feeling glad there was no one around. Emmett? Emmett and Mr. Tanner spoke for a while and in the end coach nodded and handed Emmett a whistle. Emmett left grinning madly and Mr. Tanner pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

"A coach that smokes. Highly original!"

I mumbled to myself. Suddenly a door opened and both Stefan and the brunette guy, Damon as Stefan called him, appeared. They were fighting. Mr. Tanner went to separate them telling Stefan he didn't permit fights. Stefan nodded while Damon mocked him for being a good little 'human'. A van entered the lot and parked on parking space number 22. The last two numbers were '14'.

"Hey"

I called out going to them. Muttering the excuse of the watch I asked tanner to walk me to my car as I made up that someone creepy was hanging around there. He agreed and with a glare he ordered Stefan to run 5 miles. Damon opened his mouth to make fun of Stefan when all three men fell to their knees screaming in pain.

Turning around I instinctively threw my hands up freezing everyone. On the other side of the lot stood Bonnie the teenage witch her face scrunched up also frozen but she got over it fast. Her hands created fire and she began throwing fireballs at me. I ducked to avoid one before I used one of my own to hit her. She screamed in pain and ran away.

"dammit"

Time began moving again. I was thrown down by Damon whose hands began to squeeze my throat. I kicked him and when that didn't even faze him I threw the still lit cigarette straight in his left eye telekinetically.

He growled, punched the ground and ran away. I sat up to see Stefan standing up as well, his mouth red with blood treaking from his lips to his chin. The lifeless body of Mr. Tanner by his feet. A pair of red fangs gleam in his mouth and his eyes reddened with large black pupils and lots of veins underneath them. He saw me and ran way too fast at me grabbing me from the neck

"You didn't see anything"

He growled looking at me straight in the eyes, his grip on my neck tightening. For the second time in my life I froze in fear and out of self preservation I nodded my agreement repeating the words. Pleased with that, he threw me on the ground and ran after the other guy. I began coughing before crawling to the fallen coach and checked for a pulse.

There was none. I stood up on shaking legs, grabbed my fallen bag and got to my car driving much too fast away.

"911 what's your emergency?"

"There is a dead man in the high school parking lot"

Driving home as quickly as possible I was now certain of three things. There are vampires in Mystic Falls, more traditional ones than the Cullens. All the local witches seem to be black and I lost my first innocent.


	7. Stay for dinner?

Chapter 6 – Surprise guests

When I got home I immersed myself in the tub until I could close my eyes and not see the glassy dead eyes of the history/literature/football coach. Afterwards I got through the Book for vampires. I had thought I was somewhat of an expert on the matter but obviously I was wrong. The bruise on my neck and the dead teacher do agree with it. Let's see what the Book has on them

**Vampires**

Humans who have consumed vampire blood and died within 24 hours of doing so will rise undead. The nature of the human's death is irrelevant however the body must be preserved and able to function. Upon mortal death, the undead body will awaken in a state of transition. In order to complete the transition, within the next 24 hours the person must consume an exceptional amount of human blood, or else they will die.

History

During the early Middle Ages of Europe, an old world family abandoned their homeland, soon after a severe virus, known as the plague, spread throughout their village.

With the help of a local witch named Ayana, the family traveled to America where they settled in a beautiful unnamed hamlet. However, during their presence in the community, the Original mother, Esther, had an affair with a werewolf, of whom they shared a child. However, after the untimely death of Esther's youngest child Henrik, Esther was later convinced by her husband to transform their family into the first known vampires.

Food

Blood is the main component of a vampire's diet. Whether it be animal or human or even vampire blood if a vampire fails to drink blood, their body will become severely weak, and will ultimately disintegrate into mummification. Blood (especially human blood) will not only satisfy a vampire's thirst, but will also increase and their physical capabilities. The longer a vampire abstains from blood the more likely the vampire will lose all sense of their humanity and rationality until they finally give into their bloodlust. Due to their acute senses, a vampire can detect whether or not a human has recently consumed alcohol or drugs, because their blood tastes unclean and can leave a vampire with a nasty aftertaste.

Nature

Vampires themselves are extremely feral, predatory creatures, and far more savage and beast-like than their human appearance suggests. They growl, hiss, snarl, and curl their lips back baring their fangs as signs of aggression when provoked. When they sense danger, they will immediately evade the area.

The bite of a vampire can sever the limbs of both animals and humans, as vampires are known for having extremely sharp and strong teeth. Despite their nature, vampires are also capable of human emotions, such as compassion, love, and self-control. However the emotions of vampires are far more intense than the emotions of humans; anger, happiness, hate, love, etc. are more powerful and much more overwhelming than when they were human. Whenever a vampire is faced with a powerful feeling (such as hunger) their faces transform into a paler complexion, while blood rushes to their eyes with small veins protruding around the area. Their canine teeth will lengthen into fangs, giving them a more predatory look to scare off or threaten their prey.

Powers and Abilities

Some of these powers are more potent when the vampire gets older and feeds on human blood.

_Super Strength_ - Vampires are much stronger than humans and grow stronger with time. Even new vampires who are still in transition can toss a fully grown human across a room with great speed and force. Their strength is also more powerful then werewolves that are not in wolf form.

_Super Speed_ - Vampires can accelerate their movements to cover short distances in an instant, faster than the human eye can see. When running across long distances, they appear as vibrating blurs of motion.

_Emotional Control_ - The supernatural ability to control and manipulate the emotions of one's self.

_Dream Manipulation_ - Vampires can control dreams and subconscious. The vampires can produce and modify dreams, bestow nightmares or lucid dreaming. Other effects of this ability is the distortion of reality and trapped in the dreams.

_Heightened Senses_ - They can hear whispered conversations, even ones in far off buildings, smell blood, and see in total darkness.

_Mind Compulsion_ - Vampires have the ability to control minds, plague people's dreams, and alter/erase human memories.

_Immortality_ - A vampire stops aging once turned. Upon their transformation, vampires then on become immune to all conventional illness, disease, virus and infection. The only known disease or infection that can kill a vampire is a werewolf bite.

_Healing Factor_ - Vampires can snap their finger bones back into place after being broken and have been seen to fully recover from gunshots, stab wounds, and torso impalement.

Weaknesses

_Decapitation_: The act of dismembering or removing the head of a vampire will result in permanent death.

_Fire or Sunlight_: The act of exposing a vampire to fire or sunlight will result in permanent death.

_Vervain_: The act of exposing or ingesting a vampire with vervain causes a vampire to become severely feverish and weak. Also, if a vampire's skin is exposed to vervain, it can result in burning them. Also vampires can't compel anyone on vervain.

_Wood_: The act of wounding a vampire with wood will cause the vampire to become severely weak and if a vampire takes a wooden stake through its heart it will result in permanent death.

_The Gilbert Device_ The Gilbert Device is a powerful tool enchanted to bring excruciating pain upon vampires.

_Heart Extraction_: The act of extracting or removing the heart of a vampire will result in permanent death.

_Invitation_: Vampires cannot enter a home without an invitation by the owner.

_Magic_: Vampires are susceptible to the powers of witchcraft.

_Starvation_: Vampires who abstain from blood for extended amounts of time will eventually desiccate into mummification.

_Vampire Bloodline_: If an Original vampire dies, all vampires descended from their bloodline will slowly perish.

_Werewolf Bite_: The bite of a werewolf is extremely lethal to vampires.

I rubbed my eyes. Great. Now all I have to do is start killing everything with fangs. That should be a breeze! A noise outside my house had me turning around fast. Night had fallen. I left the room quickly making sure to place the protective crystal back to its place and descended the stairs fast. I opened he front door ready to start exploding or freezing whomever was there.

"Dad?"

Okay, false alarm. I left the house to hug my tired father who was in deep conversation with Sheriff Forbes and another man.

"Hey Bells"

He hugged me close. He looked tired and his stomach growled at me.

"What are you doing here?"

I asked generally. Liz shared a look with the unnamed guy and Charlie just shrugged

"What kind of father wouldn't make sure his only daughter hadn't settled in properly?"

"You ran out of food didn't you?"

I whispered in his ear, he nodded laughing. I motioned to the house.

"I was about to start dinner anyway. Why don't you join us?"

I asked Liz and the other guy. Liz smiled nodding.

"Zach Salvatore"

He extended a hand

"Bella swan"

After living in the Halliwell manor for a whole year I was impressed by their alarm system. A strategically placed crystal above the front door that detected the nature of the guests. It would remain white for mortals or humans and turn red if the guest was anything else. I smiled to myself seeing the crystal keep its perfect white color as my sudden guests walked through the front door.

"There's beer in the fridge dad, serve?"

"Sure baby. Why is your house prettier than mine?"

"Because I made a pit stop to buy dollhouse furniture and used water colors to change what I didn't like before blowing it up again"

It was true, I had gotten rid of the wallpaper that dorned the whole downstairs and instead colored the walls with all the colors of the sunset, soft yellow on the walls, dark orange covers on the new and matching furniture soft red rugs on the floor. I replied cheekily busying myself with a simple dinner for four. I settled for a tray of baked potatoes with orange zest and chicken breasts wrapped in thin bacon slices. Simple and fast. I tossed everything in the oven and I made a green salad putting it in the fridge before joining the others in the living room.

We all made small talk for a while until Liz noticed the hand mark bruise on my neck. After showering I thought I'd be alone so I had worn a simple white tank top that didn't cover it at all

"What happened to your neck?"

She asked in a full cop mode. Great!

"I was attacked as I was leaving the high school today"

I replied looking at Zach in the eyes. How many Salvatores can be in a town this small? He coughed uncomfortably.

"What!?"

Charlie almost jumped up from his favorite leather armchair. I laid out a hand

"It's okay dad. I know how to take care of it"

I replied cryptically. I have no intention of walking around with stakes in my purse but if the book is right, a simple witchcraft or powers should be enough to stop Stefan from coming after me again.

When the oven bing'ed we all sat down to eat. Conversation was light and easy to turn around to Mr. Tanner's death. He wasn't the first. A couple had been killed three nights ago; another couple two nights ago, Vicki Donovan had been attacked last night and Mr. Tanner today.

"Must be one hell of an animal"

I had joked when Liz tried to sell the public story: animal attacks. Charlie stuffed one potato in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

"We had a few of those a couple years back. Only ours were strange. The claw marks were above the spilled blood. Isn't it strange how animals kill with exsanguinations these days?"

He asked rhetorically taking a sip from his water. Liz had froze and Zach choked on his lettuce. I was chewing a bite of chicken watching them. In the end Liz sighed.

"I am not authorized to answer that now so can we change the subject?"

"Of course we can. How are your children handling the new school year?"

I changed the topic with an easy smile. Caroline seemed to care about her daily hairdo or her nails instead of school and Stefan spent his time antagonizing the late Mr. tanner or look at Elena like a starved animal. Liz laughed lighting up the general mood.

I wonder how school is gonna be like tomorrow!


	8. Bonfire car with human marshmellows

Chapter 7 – A bonfire car with human marshmallows

"More animal attacks bells?"

Charlie turned on me when the guests left us. I shrugged one shoulder

"The Cullens are here. So is a strange mixture of witches with demon powers and a more traditional type of vampire sharing the same last name as Zach"

Charlie blinked taking a swing of his beer.

"Damn!"

Next day clad in a red button down and pair of black slacks and black heels I looked older than my twenty years as I got in my car to drive to the high school. I have no idea what happens now but I don't plan on holing inside my house to find out. Driving by the sheriff's house I saw Caroline bawling her eyes out sitting on her porch. I stopped in front of her and lowered the passenger window

"You okay?"

She shook her head crying harder. Maybe she broke a nail?

"Can I drive you somewhere?"

I asked her. She didn't reply but she got in the car. I handed her the box of tissues in the glove compartment and drove slowly mostly cruising through the town.

"He's dead and it's my fault"

She sniffled. I threw a glance at her

"Who's dead?"

"Mr. Salv...Salvatore"

I almost lost control of the car.

"What happened? When did he die?"

"Last night, he broke his neck. Stefan found him"

She blew her nose. She bit her bottom lip

I drove us to school giving Caroline enough time to calm herself down.

"Why is it your fault?"

"Promise not to tell anything?"

She looked me up and down. I nodded softly. It was strange seeing the small town beauty queen acting human.

"Yes"

"He... attacked me"

She whispered. My eyes almost popped out of their sockets

"Mr. Salvatore attacked you?"

"NO! Damon did. Stefan's brother, we were in his car and he pushed me to have sex. I told him 'no' but he told me we would have sex and I'd like it. It was so strange, his eyes got all veiny and large. He pushed me back on the seat; I kicked him and ran away. I ran all the way home and I told mom and Mr. Salvatore, he got really angry and left"

She whispered, rubbing her eyes. I winced, so Zach left my place with Liz last night, found out one of his vampire offsprings tried to date-rape-eat Liz's daughter, confronted him and got eaten himself. Wait... the compulsion didn't work on her either? I opened my mouth to ask her 'why' but her actions gave me an answer. She pulled a large to-go mug from her bag.

"You want some? It's homemade OJ"

I smiled shaking my head.

"I skipped breakfast. If I drink anything but water, I'll throw up"

I replied with the truth. Ever since I unlocked my magic my body craves for normal diet. She winced and took a sip.

"I gotta go put my game face on. Thank you for listening. See you at class"

She ran off to the girls' bathroom slamming the door behind her. Seems like Caroline Forbes has a brain behind the giggly valley girl facade. And here I hoped Mystic Falls has less weirdness than San Francisco...

"Miss Swan, may I hold you for a second?"

The headmaster stopped me before I could go to class for the first period. With Mr. Tanner's death, the schedule had changed and now English and History (the two classes I observed) had moved to the start of the day instead of the end.

"Of course"

"We called in a replacement teacher for Mr. Tanner but he will be here on Monday. Do you think you can hold the fort for today?"

He asked me. I blanched.

"You want me to tame an entire class? I'm just on my sophomore year in college an-"

"Think of it as practice."

He gave me a slimy smile, clapped my shoulder and all but threw me inside the class closing the door behind me. Can I take Cole on again instead?

The class was a riot, boys were standing atop the desks, girls were giggling and others looked like they'd have sex right there and then. The only ones sitting calmly were the Cullens. For the first time I took a moment to observe them. Alice was busying herself drawing something, Rosalie was having a Smurfette moment while gazing in a mirror, Emmett was playing with a football still clad in the red and gold varsity jacket, Jasper was engrossed in a thick book while Edward looked like he wanted to murder Matt, the guy that was serviced by Elena at the party.

I walked to the raised on a platform teacher's desk and put my bag and books down. No one paid me any attention. I rolled my eyes, put two fingers in my mouth and whistled. Loudly.

"Sit down and shut up!"

Total silence. I gave my best Cheshire cat smile.

"As you all know, Mr. Tanner... passed away yesterday"

Matt winced and looked down. No one spoke.

"The school has found a replacement but they can't be here until Monday. That leaves you with me today"

Cheers filled the classroom. I held back the eye roll.

"So I'll either give you a pop quiz"

Shouts of unhappiness interrupted

"Or we can take the day to talk about what happened."

I finished, Surprise, surprise everyone preferred to talk. I sat atop the desk, crossed my legs and pulled my soft red leather day planner out of my purse.

"Did anyone see what happened yesterday?"

I asked my eyes traveling from Stefan (who looked murderous) to Bonnie (who was glaring at me hard enough to give her lines). If looks (and sentiments) could kill I'd be one dead witch!

"I found him"

A trembling hand rose. It belonged to the varsity jacketed Matt Donovan.

"Matt, right?"

He nodded

"What happened?"

"He was late for practice"

He shrugged. He opened his mouth to continue but was unable to. He shivered at the mental image and the freak he felt reached both me and jasper, who shivered as well.

After my two hours were up (and not a minute too soon if you ask me!) I was finally able to leave the school. The headmaster had deemed the recent deaths meant nothing so he arranged for the cheerleaders to make money for the school by stripping, putting on the tiniest bikinis known to mankind and pretend they're washing cars.

Gotta love the lengths people will go to ignore the perfectly rising death count this town has. Unfortunately I was forced to have my car washed, which my car didn't mind except the tiny fact that an angry witch-demon spawn set it on fire.

I wasn't alone in it either. Caroline had asked for a ride unable to keep her ditzy, stupid, game face on and was ready to leave this place for the weekend. And to top it up, my powers weren't helping anything. I couldn't freeze the car with the entire school watching us!

And here I thought that the days of burning witches at the stake were over!


	9. Caroline dies

Chapter 8 – Caroline's death

Edward POV

I watched amazed as Bella sat on the teacher's desk, looking perfectly at ease. She didn't even pay me any attention as she smiled, prodded and poked the students to spit out who would be responsible for the teacher's death.

I couldn't read her at all. I could never read her mind, but her mannerisms, expressions and that blush always gave her away. I miss that blush. This Bella though is older with a great poker face. Her heartbeat is perfectly calm, a small smirk plastered on her lips and her eyes observant.

'She really grew up'

Rosalie's mental voice rang out to me. I nodded slightly letting her know I agreed with her. Yesterday while we were in English my hand was holding Elena's under the table and my eyes were trainer on Bella. The teacher was droning about something and Bella had an ear bud of her IPod hooked in her left ear. She was drumming her fingers on the tune of 'pink Cadillac' (much to Emmett's amusement who kept imagining her head banging for some reason) and the teacher turned to glare on her. She simply raised an eyebrow daring him to say a word. He didn't and an angelic smile raised her lips.

After class was over Elena all but dragged us to a stupid car wash and even asked to wash my Volvo. Alice had decided she'd join the squad so the rest of us were forced to watch as my sister and some other girls and boys stripped down.

"Don't even think it"

I stage whispered to Jasper whose thoughts were filled of him throwing some clothes on Alice. Those two were constantly fighting these days and only his new friend kept him from leaving Alice and us. Our quiet talk was interrupted by the heat of fire.

"That's Bella's car"

Emmett shouted as Rosalie pulled her phone out immediately to call 911. She never liked Bella but she, like Emmett and jasper, firmly believe there was something more happening when Bella left forks. I ran to the small red car but the fire from it got bigger.

"It's gonna explode"

Jasper gasped. We could see Bella inside it flailing her hands around and Caroline with her attempting to break the glass before Bella stopped her telling her that fresh oxygen was a big no-no. Students and teachers ran around with fire extinguishers but the fire wouldn't back out.

"Burn bitch"

A nasally voice broke through my head and grasping jasper's shoulder we saw who is coming from. Elena's best friend, stood nearby with a determined look in her eyes as she glared at Bella's car. Nodding to each other we ran to her and I tackled her down, breaking her concentration. Jasper was stopped by Bonne's boyfriend, Stefan who bared some sort of fangs at him and the two entered some sort of supernatural fight with jasper beating him up.

Sirens interrupted all noise as a police cruiser arrived at the scene along with an ambulance and a fire truck. Both doors of the small red car had been ripped and thrown to the sides and Caroline was laid on the ground with a darker skinned man and Rosalie giving her CPR. On the other side of the car, a guy I'd seen around town, clad in all black was cradling Bella in his arms as she coughed violently. Her dark eyes connected with mine for a moment before locking on bonnie that I held tightly.

_"Powers of this witch rise"_

She coughed

_"Fly unseen across the sky"_

Her eyes teared up

_"Come to me to calls you near"_

She fought for breath

_"Come to me and be bottled here"_

She spit out, I almost dropped bonnie to the ground as two red and black shiny things flew out of Bonnie's chest and straight to a small herb container in Bella's hand. She closed it quickly and fainted in the guys arms as a drop of blood ran down from her nose. Bonnie collapsed too.

I froze smelling the freesia scent I was no longer accustomed to.

Jasper felt me and his mind grew black with visions of him draining Bella. I hadn't realized I moved until Emmett grabbed me from behind and tossed me in his large jeep. Rosalie did the same for jasper and locked us inside it.

Alice hissed at me checking bonnie for injuries.

The paramedic shook his head covering Caroline with his jacket. Her mother, the sheriff, screamed as she fell to her knees.

The second paramedic had placed a mask on Bella's mouth and nose.

Bella POV

My eyes flickered open. I was in a pale white room with a mask on my face. The air smelled minty, sweet yet not pleasing. My lungs hurt when I breathed deeply and I felt so tired. Forcing myself to not sleep again I tried to sit up and look around. Why isn't the invincibility power I got not working?

I was lying on a hospital bed. One more bed was in the room and a white sheet was laid over someone covering them completely. I shivered lightly, I may have run with vampires but I do not like dead people. On my left wrist were two small wounds, like teeth marks and my red shirt was ripped open with the buttons missing. I sat up as a doctor walked inside.

"Carlisle?"

Why am I even surprised?

"Hello Bella"

He offered me a calm smile, the same one he gave me in Forks hospital two years ago. It had calmed me back then. The malice emanating from him now as he swapped the vial with a blue colored liquid in for one with green liquid put me on edge. This new vial smelled sweet, too sweet.

"Go to sleep Bella"

Carlisle patted my hand as my body felt sluggish with each breath I took. He watched me for a few moments before leaving the room.

"Leo. Paige"

I tried calling out but I could only manage a whisper behind the mask. The door opened one more time and a female doctor walked in. She paid me no attention as she walked to the other bed, pushing the sheet off the body revealing Caroline. She pulled a syringe from her pocket filled with a dark red liquid in the shade of blood; she pushed it in Caroline's chest inserting the blood and used the paddles on Caroline to shock her two times. It must have worked because the doctor smiled pleased and put a mask on Caroline's face before exiting the room.

"What the hell happened Grey?"

Liz shouted at someone.

"Someone tried to kill them Liz. Do you need it subtitled?"

The man with the doctor's coat mocked, if my bleary eyes aren't playing tricks on me, he was Elena's dad, some sort of a doctor. The younger guy next to Liz growled. I blinked. Suddenly everyone froze and Leo appeared next to my bed.

"Doctors these days"

He rolled his eyes at the now frozen people and sat at the feet of my bed. I rubbed my eyes almost poking one out. I need to cut my nails soon.

"What's going on?"

"A cold one tried to kill you. You called me. I healed you and then pointed the mistake to the doctors here."

"Carlisle? How did he..."

I trailed remembering the green vial. Leo simply nodded not needing to reply. I bit my lip.

"Where is he?"

"Fired"

"Where is my bag?"

I asked looking for my messenger bag. Leo grabbed it from a chair and handed it to me.

"Can you ask the Elders what these are?"

I handed him the potion vial that held the red and black powers/orbs that left Bonne's body. Leo took it gingerly.

"Where did you get these?"

"They flew out from the witch that set my car on fire."

"They flew?"

He lifted a dark blond eyebrow at me. I rolled my dark eyes at him instead of answering. He gave a theatrical bow before robbing out and life returned once again in the room.


	10. Need to talk

Chapter 9 – Need to talk

No POV

Damon Salvatore was pissed off. It had been 142 years since that fateful night that he died and hadn't been back in Mystic Falls since. Until now, the time was almost right and he needed to be here to make sure that the chips fell to place.

So he spent his time eating people and hiding from an extra vigil council. He would admit to killing random people but he hadn't killed his uncle, he hadn't bitten Caroline and he had nothing to do with the stoned slut. That was all Stefan, the self proclaimed bunny eater!

Everyone knew that he was the black sheep of the Salvatore family tree, the ruthless one that killed for pleasure and that Stefan was the brooding, remorseful vampire. Those were their respective roles so when Stefan came to Mystic Falls first and gave his version of the recent killings to their nephew and last owner of the Salvatore boarding house, Zach bought it and was ready to pin it all on Damon, even though they both knew who the real killer was.

The problems arose when Stefan killed Tanner. Ok, so maybe he had wanted to kill man himself but in the end it was Stefan that ate him, and he left a witness behind. Zach put it together and figured out that Stefan had killed him. On top of that Zach found out that Damon tried to compel a girl to sleep with him but she was on vervain so it didn't work. After the girl ran away from him, she stumbled upon Stefan who didn't ask permission before trying to rape and bite her. She managed to get free of him and run home where she told her mother (the sheriff and descendant founder) and her mother's boyfriend (Zach) about both attacks. Zach calmed his girlfriend and then went home to deal with the brothers.

All three of them fought and Zach was killed by his own stake. He managed to stake both brothers but Damon's constant human diet gave him the upper hand fighting Zach long enough for Stefan to manage to stake him.

Damon would deal with the girl and the sheriff and Stefan would take care of the witness of his killing tanner. Damon succeeded in persuading the vervained sheriff that her daughter mistook both brothers for someone else and that Zach left town for a while so as the oldest son he'd take Zach's position in the founder's council. Then he went to the school to make sure Stefan would successfully deal with the witness. When he got there, he saw the witness trapped in a car with the sheriff's daughter and the car on fire.

He had agreed with Stefan that killing the witness was the best course of action but something in him drove him to breaking the car's door and saving her. He had to clue why, but he couldn't let her die.

"Are you busy?"

Jasper, his oldest and newest friend asked him the moment he walked into the Grill.

"No?"

"Good"

With that the Cold one clapped him on the shoulder and dragged him out of the crowded Grill and to a house that shared a back yard with his own.

"Who lives here?"

Damon asked. Jasper smirked.

"Bella"

"Who's Bella?"

"Edward's human ex-girlfriend that you saved from a burning car"

"That Bella"

Jasper's smirk broadened feeling the shock & slight possessiveness mixed with lust coming from his friend. The two had met and served together in the Civil war. When Damon went to visit his family, Jasper had gotten attacked and transformed to a Cold one kind of vampire. Meanwhile he himself had been changed to a more traditional kind of a vampire. Both believed the other dead until Jasper's coven/family had moved to Mystic Falls the year before.

"This is strange"

Jasper mused.

"What is?"

"This house, used to be in Forks but in a different color"

Damon raised an eyebrow. The house in front of him was modest, in a sea foam shade of white with a seriously big and busy yard.

"Your deer was high again?"

He asked smirking. Jasper growled lightly and moved to the door. The door was slightly open and the two vampires pushed it open both suddenly afraid. Neither paid any attention to the fact they could not enter the house. A few feet inside the door on a round table sat cross-legged with her back on them, levitating in mid air was a girl. Suddenly her back clenched and she dropped on the table like a hot potato with her head hanging from the side of the table.

"Were you two born in the stables?"

Bella growled glaring at them.

"No, in the barn"

Damon deadpanned. Bella suppressed a smirk and slid off the table rubbing her neck.

"Can I help you with something?"

"We should talk"

Jasper said nervously. Bella's eyes traveled from vampire to vampire before nodding.

"Sure"

She slipped between them and sat on one of the black metallic patio chairs and waited till they joined her.

"So... what's up?"

Bella sat quiet as Jasper began speaking. She kept her mouth shut and her emotions under control taking in the information.

Jasper told her about what happened after she was put on the plane for Florida almost 2 years ago. The Cullens had made a temporary truce with the La Push wolves until Victoria was gone and working together they deposited her in a pile of ashes within the summer.

After that, everything went sideways.

Edward wanted to call Bella with the happy news but Carlisle was adamant. He wanted no communication with Bella and for a while the whole family listened. When Laurent was finally caught too, everyone wanted to talk to her, even Rosalie. Carlisle then admitted to have received a letter from Bella. She had sent him (of all people) a letter asking them to leave her be. That she found someone else to be happy with and she wasn't coming back.

Soon the family left Forks and never looked back. Carlisle found a position at the hospital in Mystic Falls and the family relocated. During a blood drive held by the school Carlisle met Elena Gilbert and persuaded Edward to pursue a relationship with the girl to help him move on from Bella.

"Are you insane?"

Bella asked calmly. Internally she was seething, she had spent the whole year in San Francisco upset at the Cullens' silence just because Carlisle faked a note? And everyone believed him?

"What do you mean?"

"I never sent a note to Carlisle. I called weekly and no-one ever answered the damn phone Jasper. Do you have any idea how sad and upset and hurt I was at the silence?"

"Bella..."

"No, Jasper. I heard you and now you're going to hear me"

She said in a low, dangerous voice. During Jasper's story she had felt no malice, no lying, nothing to suggest Jasper was being dishonest with her. Fisting her hands, stopping the fireballs she felt were about to form, she forced herself to remain calm and told him what she did in San Francisco, holding back the witch thing. She wasn't sure she wanted to bare herself completely like that just yet. She finished her story by handing him the note she had found in the Cullen house in Forks.

"They have the same handwriting. Who wrote the letters?"

Damon spoke for the first time holding both letters in his hands.


	11. I need a drink

Chapter 10 – I need a drink

**Bella POV**

Having kicked out both vampires out I decided I needed to get out. Meditating hadn't helped in calming me down one bit and there are no places up in the sky around here. I stripped out of the red track pants and sports bra and put on a pair of black jeans and an emerald green silky top with a pair of black boots. Walking out of the house I realized the fault in my plan.

"I have no car"

Rolling my eyes to myself I went through my purse looking for the card the taxi driver had given me a few hours ago and called for a taxi. I only had to wait ten minutes for it to arrive

"Where to miss?"

Good question. Somewhere close yet far enough away to let me relax.

"State campus. Downtown area"

We were here in just over thirty minutes and as soon as I got in one of the busy clubs I plopped my behind on a stool and ordered my first drink.

"Americano please"

Two stools down from where I was sitting was the caramel haired woman from the Grill. Drink in hand I walked to her.

"Jenna?"

"Oh hey. Night on the town?"

"Yeah, small towns can get..."

"Stifling!"

She finished for me and I laughed nodding.

"Exactly!"

We chatted for a while until we finished our drinks and then we moved to the dance floor.

"Hey, isn't that our History of Art something professor?"

She asked me. I followed her eyes to the dark clothed, dark haired man in a table with a dark skinned woman. I felt a frown build on my face. I could be wrong but this man was at the Grill yesterday, talking with Bonnie a few hours after Vicki Donovan was attacked.

"Don't take the class"

I shrugged. She laughed and dropped her voice.

"Looks like he likes them older"

I giggled. His head snapped up and looked straight to us under the red and blue and black and white strobe lights. My heartbeat went into overdrive remembering who else snapped his head equally fast when Jessica mentioned him in the cafeteria of Forks high.

"Come on, you're drunk"

I pulled her back to the bar with a smile and got us another round, making sure to drop a leaf of vervain in her mojito and get a club soda with a lime slice for me. The professor's eyes followed us and soon he and his companion (that shared high cheekbones, dark eyes with two witches I had already defeated) and parted and she left the club. He however came to us, sat on a nearby stool and ordered a stiff drink.

Jenna didn't even taste the vervain as she gulped her drink and steered the conversation back to the 'hottie' sitting near us. Mortified with my legendary blush rising on my cheeks I convinced her she's seriously drunk and managed to get her out of the club and to the cool night but not before she slipped her number to the equally amused, probably vampire down the seat.

"I drove"

Jenna declared proudly stumbling to the big dark purple SUV.

"You're not driving now"

"Why?"

She pouted taking off her heels with a grimace.

"Because I don't wanna die in a car"

I laughed and still pouting she handed me her keys. The keychain had DeDe from Dexter on. I drove us staying within the limits and while listening and singing with the radio Jenna gave me directions. The drive took almost an hour and we pulled to her sister's house in Mystic Falls. Jenna had fallen asleep with her head in my lap. Laughing to myself I extracted myself from under her head and rang the doorbell.

"Hello?"

The dark haired woman from the grill answered the door. I smiled and pointed to the SUV behind me

"Is she yours?"

"Jenna"

She sighed with a maternal smile and with a chuckle to herself she got the teenage boy to get his more than slightly drunk aunt to the house.

"Are you drunk?"

She looked me over.

"Not nearly enough. I took a cab there and drove us back"

I calmed her down. I bit my lip

"Is Dr. Gilbert here?"

"Yes, he is. Come on inside"

"Thank you Mrs. Gilbert"

"Call me Miranda"

I entered the house, mildly impressed on getting invited in so easily. The interior of the house was very pretty and Miranda guided me to a living room where a movie was on pause, Elena was force feeding popcorn to Edward who looked like he was about to puke and Dr. Gilbert did not look happy at all. I raised an eyebrow to Edward who swallowed with a wince, entirely similar to the one he gave me when I made him eat pizza.

"Miss Swan"

"Bella"

"How are you Bella?"

"I'm good. I wanted to thank you for noticing the mask thing. It feels really good to be alive"

I joked. He nodded

"I was just doing my job"

He replied modestly. Behind him Elena rolled her eyes.

"How is Caroline?"

"She is well, should be discharged tomorrow afternoon. Her lungs were worse than yours"

I nodded

"Is it okay if I go see her tomorrow?"

He nodded.

"Of course it is"

"Thank you. I should be going now. Goodnight everyone"

I excused myself and left the house. I hadn't even closed the fence gate behind me when a voice called me

"Hey!"

"Hey yourself. Enjoyed the pop corn?"

I teased and he glared me

"Need a ride?"

"No. But the good doctor is looking straight at us so..."

I moved to the Volvo that was full of scratches.

"What happened to your car?"

I asked seeing the almost destroyed exterior. He sighed and got in the driver's seat pulling off the lot slowly.

"The car wash. Elena used a metallic sponge"

I began laughing

"Stupid, brunette speaks about herself all the time, flirts with everything that moves and dull. Jessica would be so jealous"

I have never seen Edward Cullen laugh so freely or loudly before.

"If you put it that way..."

I gave him directions to my house.

"Jasper told me about what happened... It's not true you know. I didn't meet anyone and I never sent that letter"

"Yeah, he told me too but I'm with Elena now and"

"You think I'm flirting with you?"

I raised an eyebrow

"I'm not. Being away from you for a year kind of opened my eyes. We're not a good match"

I snorted. To my extreme surprise he nodded

"No, we're not. I'm sorry you know"

"I'm sorry too"

We passed Caroline's house and pulled in front of mine. I turned to look at him

"Friends?"

"Friends"

With a smile I opened the passenger's door.

"Goodnight Edward"

I waved and went straight to bed after making sure no one had intruded and that my house was still safe.

The weekend was slow, uneventful except Caroline woke up in transition to vampire, traditional style and completed it before she realized what had happened. On top of that the new coach was the younger (and hotter) brother of the mayor is kind of a four legged, wigged tail normal sized werewolf.

Also traditional style.


	12. Vampires, Werewolves and Magic

_HAPPY NEW YEAR _ To all of you. May 2013 bring peace, health, love and happiness to everyone

Chapter 11 – Vampires, Werewolves and Magic. Just a normal Sunday

"My mother is giggling"

The epitome of the word 'newborn' Caroline said astonished. We were sitting on her bed I had visited her on Sunday before she returned home with her mother who was oblivious to her daughter's new condition.

"At least she isn't fawning over us"

I joked but sobered up fast.

"I'll help you IF you promise to come to me when you need help"

Caroline bit her bottom lip

"What do I have to do?"

She kept wiggling her fingers

"Try to keep calm, work on your emotions to keep them in check and most of all, try not to eat anyone again"

I told her softly.

"I'm scared"

She whispered. I bit my lip and sat cross-legged across from the blond girl who made no try to put on her bubbly facade.

"I would be upset if you weren't scared Caroline but it will be okay. I won't let you hurt anyone"

"Why are you so nice?"

I chuckled darkly

"For one thing, you were in my car. Your BFF wanted to roast me, not you. Secondly, there are quite a few people that will take one look at those pointy teeth of yours and kill us both and lastly, I ..."

I took her hand in mine and gasped

_A large ferris wheel._

_Caroline and Jasper locked in a lip lock._

_Liz hugging her daughter before scolding her for being messy_

I shook my head smiling.

"What's wrong with you?"

I snorted

"Vision. It will be okay. Are you single?"

I asked instead making mental plans to get jasper to help me with Caroline. She shook her head with widened eyes.

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason"

"okay"

She looked at me strangely

"Vision?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. I'm a witch"

I rubbed the back of my neck

"A witch? Like Bonnie?"

"I'm nothing like bonnie"

I spit out.

"I'm sorry; your best friend is a sore subject with me"

I backtracked watching her eyes widen.

"What did she do to you?"

She asked perceptively

"Someone related to her tried to kill me the day I moved here and she herself set my car on fire with you and me inside it. Need more?"

I raised my eyebrows

"I can't believe she would do that. We've been friends since we were toddlers, us two and Elena. It wasn't until a couple years ago that things changed."

"Changed how?"

"Boys"

She joked

"I always had a crush on Matt. Elena dated him for years but she dumped him as soon as Edward moved here"

I held in a snort at that

"Then she and bonnie got really tight and I was left out of their new tight loop"

A few tears escaped her eyes. Jasper said that as soon as they moved here, Carlisle practically threw Edward at Elena and Edward himself added that Elena thought they were all humans. No matter their light sensitivity, heightened senses or anything to suggest they weren't humans.

"For all it's worth, I think you got lucky"

I muttered. Our conversation was cut short when her giggling mother entered the room with the guy that had pulled Caroline out of the car. The kid brother of the mayor. The werewolf.

"Why is she still giggling?"

Caroline muttered more than slightly annoyed. I made no effort to hide the smirk

"Get used to it. When a werewolf mates it's for life"

I poked fun. She looked horrified.

"If they give me a baby sibling, I'll hurl"

"If they do, you can always put it on a leash and take it out to do its business"

I sent the newcomers to the room a cheeky smile. Liz went straight to her daughter and began fumbling with the covers and smoothing her hair almost frantically letting my words fly over her head. The werewolf, who did hear me, just smiled in a relaxed manner.

"I'll bite her"

Caroline's thoughts rang out. I kicked her, mentally cursing Edward. He had just HAD to try and read my mind last night!

"Mason Lockwood. New coach"

He handed a hand at me. I smiled at shook it

"Bella Swan. TA for a few lessons at school and local witch"

I added the 'witch' part low enough for only us to listen. He nodded casually and Liz, who missed it all, sat down on his lap. Caroline's eyes bulged out of their sockets and I held in a laugh. She reminded me of Jake, my werewolf best friend back in Forks, and his reactions every single time his sister would fawn over his pack mate and resident asshole Paul.

"As soon as Grey gives you the all clear then we can go home"

Liz sighed and took her daughter's hand in her own with a soft smile. Caroline looked freaked. I rubbed her other hand, glad for the slight clouds on the sky. I stayed with them until Caroline was safe at her home where we talked until an exasperated Liz invited us both in and then I left.

"I'll be right back, okay? If you feel like taking a bite out of something, use a pillow"

I walked quickly the block to my house and went to the attic. Browsing through the Book, the page about vampires I made a quick call.

"Hi. Are you busy? Great, my house, five minutes"

The doorbell rang in four and the moment I opened it I was greeted by a smug smirk and exasperated Jasper.

"Are you two joined at the hip?"

I asked in lieu of a greeting.

"Didn't you miss me?"

The cocky Damon asked.

"Go bury your relative"

I deadpanned and turned to smirking Jasper.

"Why don't you sparkle anymore?"

"Carlisle has a witch friend; she put some spell on our crests, why?"

"Can I see it? I'm gonna have to repeat it"

"Can we move this inside?"

Jasper looked around and at the suddenly appeared sun.

"Yeah, come on in guys"

I said reluctantly and got them both in the living room.

"The cuff please?"

Jasper took it off and put it on the coffee table.

"Why do you need to repeat it and how?"

I sneaked a look at Damon and shrugged one shoulder

"You both saw me cast a spell yesterday. I'm a witch"

"That's why you were in San Francisco?"

"Exactly"

I told Jasper.

"And it's why I'm here now"

Going through the book for a spell to see what spells are placed on an object I told the two vampires everything. I would need allies if I was gonna find out what's happening here and my gut told me I could trust them even though my vision had Damon killing a whole family.

"You saw Katherine?"

"Who's Katherine?"

"The girl that looked like Elena"

"Yeah, in my vision, she appeared right after your brother saved Elena, killed her and took her place. And now that I think about it, why didn't your wife have the same vision jasper?"

He sighed

"Don't get me started"

I snuck a look at Damon who was pointly looking elsewhere.

"Okay... gonna explain this?"

with another sigh he told me how he and Alice keep fighting and how ever since they moved here the family is divided in two fronts, Carlisle, Esme and Alice that are hell bent on befriending Bonnie and Elena, Jasper - Rosalie - Emmett, who don't and Edward playing mediator. I held in the comment of them meeting me (and the exact same reactions) and found the spell I was looking for.

_"Show me what I need to know_

_In this cuff I now show"_

I whispered passing my hand above the cuff. From my other hand, placed on a paper on the Book sprung words and printed themselves. I returned the cuff to Jasper.

"Can I use your ring too?"

"Only if you tell me who am the vampire you're helping"

"Caroline Forbes"

Damon's eyes popped out of their sockets

"Who changed her?"

"A doctor at the hospital. Not Carlisle, he tried to kill me"

"What doctor?"

"Late thirties, curly hair, brunette, pointy nose. She used her as an experiment of shorts"

Jasper sighed

"Meredith Fell. Carlisle has an affair with her"

Weird and weirder...


	13. Open Tomb

Chapter 12 – Open tomb

"I'll talk about her to the council"

Damon decided.

"And Caroline? I promised to help her and I will but I can't teach her how to kill or not to kill"

I threw my best puppy dog eyes at Jasper who rolled his eyes and sighed.

"I can try but I can't control myself let alone show someone else how to control it"

"Oh please. You trained newborns"

Damon threw

"What's a newborn? And don't tell me 'babies'"

I rubbed my temples looking at both vampires. Jasper sighed, again, and went through his life story quickly for me.

"Okay, so you teach her how to hunt and whatnot and I'll be there for her with everything else"

We decided. Hiding a smile I took the guys with me to the Forbes household and left Damon with the sheriff and her werewolf, better bite that bullet now, and took jasper to Caroline's room with me. The young vampire was crouching under her bed to avoid the weak sunlight.

"Hey Caroline, this is my friend Jasper. You two have a few thinks in common"

"I'm hungry"

"I can show you how to hunt"

Jasper told smoothly and softly to the frightened girl.

"Caroline, can I see your jewel box?"

She handed it to me and went back to talking with jasper on how to control her thirst. For a vampire of a complete different kind, he sure knew the ins and outs of vampirism. Sitting on her bed I went through her jewel box until I found a simple lapis lazuli oval pendant hanging from a satin ribbon long enough to be a necklace or wrapped around her wrist. Following the instructions on the Book I put in direct sunlight and performed the spell on it. I handed it to Caroline and explained what it does. Now sure of herself she put it on, laughed at jasper's sparkliness and holding her hand in mine we all walked downstairs.

Damon was sitting in the living room with a more than a little horrified Liz and a pissed off mason yelling to the phone.

"You told them?"

He nodded

"Caroline..."

"I'm sorry mommy"

Caroline whispered. Her nervousness rubbed on both me and jasper but Liz was perfectly unaffected as she hugged her daughter ignoring her pointy teeth

"You're still you baby. Just don't bite mommy"

She told her daughter in the voice we all use to talk to babies. Mason joined us

"She's been taken care of"

He told Liz who nodded. Hell hath no fury like a mother of a newborn vampire.

"Shouldn't she be sharpening stakes to kill us both?"

Jasper whispered. Damon hissed

"Don't give her any ideas"

"Boys, zip it. She's a mom first even if she's bred to kill both your asses"

Mason chuckled and sitting down beside Liz we began talking about this and that.

"Bella as in Phil's Bella?"

"You knew Phil?"

"He stopped me from ripping a new one to a guy for harassing my then girlfriend. How is he?"

"Dead. Permanently so."

"What happened?"

"Dark lighter went after him so they could get to me next. Poor Phil didn't stand a chance"

The moment the sun went down Jasper took Caroline hunting. She looked freaked by the idea of killing an animal and Damon kept yapping on how he has human blood stored for when she needs it. Then he actually apologized to Liz for attacking Caroline less than 48 hours ago. I half expected her to attack him but she didn't. Mason however did mention the threat he'd pose to the vampires for three short nights every month but that he also had a plan to try and not hurt any.

"It's really strange how you all agree to this"

"What do you mean?"

Liz asked.

"I mean you were bred how to fight vampires your entire life but you didn't even blink when your daughter became one. You're not even mad that your new council buddy is one or that your boyfriend was killed by him or that your new boyfriend grows a tail!"

To my surprise Liz laughed

"I see what you mean but frankly the old rules of finding a vampire and kill it never worked. You saw the other night at your house, 5 killings happened in under a week"

She threw a dirty glare at Damon who smirked and noted he only committed 2 of those

"And the whole council has no idea of how to locate a vampire. Our methods are ancient and inefficient"

"And protecting your vampire daughter doesn't go against your duties?"

"Never."

"Do you want her to hate her daughter?"

Mason interjected. I shook my head frantically

"No! It's just... It's too sudden. Three days ago, at my house both you and Mr. Salvatore were ready to grab pitchforks and start a headcount of who is really human in town and now you're calm and collected. I'm scared you'll wake up tomorrow or whenever Caroline slips and kills or attacks someone and you'll kill her"

"She's my daughter. I love her; she can use my blood if she's so hungry"

Liz said defiantly. I smiled and she replied with another one

"Plus, I always had a crush on Mason"

We all laughed. A few hours later Caroline and jasper returned both drenched in blood. Caroline was disgusted on how she killed a deer and jasper looked upset at how she threw up the animal blood. Liz scolded her for being messy but promised to get her some human from the hospital and made all vampires in the room promise to try and stick to a non lethal diet. Afterwards Damon walked me home.

"Can I ask you something?"

He asked with all signs of cockiness absent from his face and tone

"Sure"

"You said Katherine is alive?"

"Yeah, she was skulking around. Why?"

"What did you do to her?"

"Nothing. I only sent her back erasing the memory of whatever reason she had to show up. Not sure if that worked though"

"Why?"

"I did the same think to you and Stefan and you two are still here"

He ran his hand through his head messing it up a bit.

"She's the reason I'm here"

I looked down.

"I can listen if you want to talk"

I said softly. With a wry laugh he told me about Katherine. How he met her and fell for her. How she was officially dating his brother and slept with Damon and how she was trapped in a tomb under the old church with a lot of other vampires.

"Those are the 'civilians' Stefan told about during class. A bunch of vampires"

I trailed, he nodded

"I wanted to open the tomb and get her out but you're saying she's not in it"

He kicked a pebble.

"Who locked them up?"

"A Bennet witch"

"Bennet as in Bonnie Bennet?"

"Yep"

He popped the 'p' and I rolled my eyes. It does make sense strangely

"How are they locked in?"

"Some sort of spell"

"Want to visit and make sure Katherine isn't in?"

"Can I?"

His eyes lit up like a kid in the candy store. I laughed and shook my head

"Only if you do what mommy says"

I said in the same voice I use when try to keep mom under control my entire life. With a smile better belonging to Rumpelstiltskin, he grabbed my hand, dragged me to his house, threw me in a car and drove fast.

"First of all never manhandle me, secondly why do all vampires drive so fast?"

"I'll keep it for the bedroom then"

He winked. I raised an eyebrow and glared at him copying the Bennet witch the best I could. He hissed in pain and lost control of the car for a moment

"Just to keep you in line"

I winked. He looked at me surprised before laughing aloud. He drove us to the other edge of town; we went on a short hike and ended up at a ruined church. I was immediately hit with pure anger and cold hate, I shivered.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Let's do this. Hold my hand it's the only way you'll be able to leave the tomb"

I took his hand in mine and began chanting a simple cancellation spell for those who are witches. He would never be able to get in or out on his own. Taking a mental step forward we were both inside the musty tomb.

"How big is this place?"

"Not big at all"

Hand in hand we walked among the graying bodies. They were in various states of decaying, fallen on the ground, clad in period clothes. Damon recognized a few as servants and workers of the time but no Katherine. When he was done he looked strangely sad and was holding to my hand too tightly. I got us out and we did what every normal person does when they find out their beloved have led them to believe a lie for 145 years.

We got plastered.


	14. Couldn't find number '9'

Chapter 13 – Couldn't find the number '8'

"Did anyone get the number of the semi that hit me?"

I groaned feeling my pillow move. Why is my pillow moving?

"You drooled on me"

Mr. Snarky vamp scowled. I glared at him.

"You got me drunk. I don't like being drunk"

I pouted with a blinding headache.

"Go away"

I groaned

"It's my house!"

"Bite me"

I pulled the covers over my head.

"Okay"

Four fangs were inserted in my neck. I would scream but that actually felt good. Sooner than I might have liked they were extracted and the spell was over

"Hey!"

I threw him a low voltage energy ball at him.

"You told me to bite you"

He growled. He looked funny in his charred black clothes.

"It's a figure of speech"

The 170 year old vampire responded maturely. He stuck his tongue out at me. I threatened to hit him with another one.

"Come on Miss Swan. Time to go to school"

Grabbing my hand he lifted me up and after a quick stop at my house he drove me to the school.

"I'll see you later. Now go I wanna go back to sleep"

He growled and drove off the lot.

"Was he always such an asshole?"

"Yeah"

I turned around to the smiling jasper and a smirking Caroline.

"You're wearing the same clothes as yesterday"

She accused with a pointy finger. I slapped her hand away

"We got drunk. End of story"

She looked giddy at my neck. Oh yeah.

"I told him to bite me. Didn't think he'd take it literally"

I half shrugged and headed inside the school with minutes to spare. Inside the classroom a sandy haired man with hazel eyes and a big bulky ring writing something on the board

"Hello?"

I asked with my ever polite smile.

"You seem a bit old to be a junior"

He! Wait till you see the rest of the class

"I'm Bella Swan, your new TA"

I gave him the folder signed by Mr. Tanner, the principal and my college teachers. He read the transcripts before dropping the serious expression and actually smiling.

"Nice to meet you, miss Swan. Local?"

"Not even close and please call me Bella. How about you? All I know is that you were brought in from another school and town"

I prodded a bit. Normally I wouldn't but let's face it. Only a handful of people around here are normal, harmless humans that live their lives in peace. The teacher, that now I knew as Mr. Alaric Salzmann was a widow, a college teacher that prefers high schoolers (for some reason) and who was glad to leave the home he shared with his late wife who shares the same name as me, Isobel. Everything would be A-OK if I hadn't caught the sun filter on his bulky, ugly ring.

The same ring Dr. Gilbert is wearing and, according to the journals I have, is unique to the Gilbert family line. In his class he was far friendlier with a keen eye. I noticed his eyes lingering a lot on all the supernatural creatures in the classroom and on my vampire bites. I took my old habit of wearing all my hair to one side to cover my neck and kept my right wrist pressed firmly on the desk.

So much for peace and quiet!

After my classes were over I made a bee-line for Caroline who was nursing a yogurt talking with Rosalie.

"Hey guys"

"Hi"

Caroline squeaked. Rosalie chuckled under her breath and explained.

"Yogurt quenches the thirst"

"How do you know that?"

"You have no idea how much Carlisle reads"

Rosalie commented. Caroline nodded happily

"How are you?"

I asked them both taking a bite of Caroline's yogurt. She half shrugged saying she feels on edge but jasper said it was expected and that she was relatively okay. Rosalie agreed and just shared a few stories of her own newborn years. They were different in nature yet identical in essence.

"I'd apologize but I don't regret it"

She said and it was the water under the bridge needed to start a friendship between us.

For a month things were quiet and normal again.

After trying to kill animals and not succeeded "because they are too damn cute and that's how all serial killers begin" Caroline moved on with humans taking Jasper with her on the human's wagon.

Rosalie got off her high horse, which was apparently imaginary when we first met in Forks, she befriended Caroline and the two were thick as thieves.

Emmett had loads of fun being co-captain of the school's football team along with Tyler. Between a vampire and a not-yet werewolf Mystic Timberwolves won almost every game they were on.

I hung back and watched those friendships form with a judging eye. My visions kept becoming worse and worse leaving me wanting to get plastered daily to keep them in control. When drinking didn't help as I kept waking up in Damon's bed (always dressed though), I turned to meditations and vision quests. When that didn't work either as I kept dying in them, I tried distancing myself from the lives of all supernatural beings in Mystic Falls. But that didn't work either. I was too invested in their lives to pull back.

On a day that was seriously raining I received a gift. My car was completely fixed, almost brand new.

"How?"

I asked Mason who was grinning and had an arm casually thrown around Emmett's broad shoulders.

"Nothing a little bit of banging and paint couldn't fix. Did you know these guys are amazing in fixing cars? I always wanted to be a mechanic"

He grinned like a boy with a new toy. I laughed and surprised him with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Emmett laughed at us

"She missed my bear hugs"

He explained and proceeded on showing to his new werewolf friend how to give a proper bear hug until I begged them both to let me breathe.

"Who wants a ride to school?"

Caroline jumped in the passenger seat; she was quickly becoming a friend or a little sister to me. Emmett grinned cheekily.

"What?"

"Let's see who can get there faster"

He chimed and took off like a bullet.

"No fair!"

I pouted but put pedal to the metal and I shot like an arrow too. Caroline played with the radio as I drove us to school.

"You okay?"

"I deal with it. How did you do it?"

"Did what?"

"Be okay with your mom bang a guy younger than her"

"I bought ear plugs actually"

She looked horrified and I sighed taking a hand off the wheel to take her hand in mine

"Be happy for her. Sure he's not a normal guy but he loves her, who cares if he howls from time to time"

"How do you know that?"

I stared at her

"I live down the street"

She laughed.

"Thanks Bella"

"Anytime"

Nearing the school I pushed harder and headed straight for the parking spot Emmett's large jeep had been parked for days, Pulling a TG move I made a hand break turn and slid into the spot.

"You did it!"

Caroline cheered as we got out of the car.

"Where is he?"

I asked Rosalie who stood nearby laughing under a large red umbrella. I screamed as a head rolled from beneath my car. Emmett scowled

"I won"

I informed him opening my own blue and yellow polka dot umbrella

"You cheated"

My mature answer to poke my tongue out at him. Laughing we all entered the school. Mr. Salzmann had prepped a quiz for the class and watched them intently checking for any signs of cheating. One of my visions had informed me that he was a vampire hunter hell bent on killing the Vampire that killed his late wife. That was Damon. Naturally!

Breaking into Alaric's house I had swapped out his stash of vervain for valerian. A calming herb. Once Alaric had all vervain out of his system Damon let him try and kill him and then compelled the teacher afterwards that the vampire responsible for killing Isobel was dead. I switched valerian for vervain and all was well. During a PTA meeting Alaric had returned the Gilbert heirloom ring to Dr. Gilbert and was now one of Damon's drinking buddies.

Men are strange.

The test was interrupted by a tall, cute girl with straight dirty blond hair and a smirk. She was holding a cake with the numbers 162 on it.

"162?"

Alaric asked. The girl smiled mischievously and lied

"I couldn't find the number '8'"

I smirked as Alaric offered to light the candles. All test sheets had been returned to he allowed the girl to come inside the class. Stefan scowled seeing the cake but it brightened seeing the girl and he hugged her tightly.

Elena scowled deeply seeing Stefan discard her. Alice shared a look with bonnie and both glared on the girl. Edward shook his head reading their minds.

"Happy birthday babe"

The girl said kissing Stefan hard and plopping on his lap.


	15. Auctioning Damon

Chapter 14 – Auctioning Damon

As Jasper changed wagons from 'animal' to 'human', Stefan moved from small game like rabbits to big game like deer and mountain lions. Emmett forbade him from going on bears, not that there were ant bears around. So now, when the bell rang and Stefan was relieved from being wished 'happy birthday' he was eager to introduce his friend.

"Guys this is Lexi. Lexi this is everyone"

Was his introduction. Lexi gave polite nods to everyone and did a great impression of not noticing the sneer on Elena's face as she left the room with her friends. Caroline shook her head sadly at her former friends. I squeezed her shoulder and smiled when I noticed she was holding hands with jasper. Stefan told us how he and Lexi met, she had been asked by Damon to help him stop eating the townsfolk in 1864 and they became best friends over the years. She was a nurse and had been changed about a 110 years before Stefan.

"So you kiss all your friends?"

Caroline raised an eyebrow. Lexi rolled her deep blue eyes

"No, only the ones that blush when I kiss them"

She joked making Stefan blush again.

"Kiss Bella then!"

Emmett crowned. I felt a rise of blood rush to my cheeks and scowled at him. Lexi rolled her eyes and winked at me.

"It was great meeting you Lexi, but I got to go. I have classes"

I excused myself when the break was over and the class had new students.

"Sorry if I made you uncomfortable back there"

Lexi caught up with me in the parking lot. I shook my head chuckling

"You didn't. I'm used to Emmett being Emmett by now. Do you need a lift?"

I asked noticing a bit of sun peeking through the heavy November clouds. Her eyes snapped to mine as she accepted.

"Are you staying at Stefan's?"

I asked pulling out of the lot

"I always do. You know a lot about..."

She trailed

"I'm a witch. Don't worry, you're safe from me but there is a council in town so stick to bags or animals"

She shuddered

"I only drink from bags"

She smiled. I noticed she wore a delicate bracelet on her left wrist. It featured a small lapis oval stone on a set of swirl silver. She noticed it looking

"Family heirloom. My mother gave it to me when I came of age"

She smiled wistfully at it. I must be going soft because I found myself smiling

"Is it spelled?"

"No"

"Do you want it to be?"

Her round face snapped inhumanly fast and her deep blue eyes were wide.

"You would do that?"

I shrugged one shoulder

"Stefan is my friend"

"He told me, he tried to kill you"

A dark blond eyebrow was raised

"He was being influenced by an evil witch. I took care of her"

I shrugged it off.

"I promise no strings will come with it but it's your choice. I like Stefan and he deserves a break, it's bad enough both brothers transferred their feelings of Katherine to Elena and Elena is taunting them while being with someone else"

Lexi nodded having seen the mess Stefan was first hand.

"Plus I didn't get him a birthday gift"

I joked pulling in front of the Salvatore boarding house. With a smile Lexi unclasped her bracelet and put it in my palm.

"I'm throwing him a party. Will you come tonight?"

"I'd love to"

I watched as she entered the house and sped to college. Looks like I'd miss a class today

"She's insane"

"Hello to you too Damon"

I greeted the pissed off vampire sitting on my porch steps returning from my classes that afternoon. He scowled at me and threw me an invitation to a charity event for that same evening.

"Who's insane?"

"The sheriff. They want to auction me. I'm not some meat and no one in this town has enough money to afford this body"

He motioned to himself superiorly. I broke in laughter having seen a Tree Hill episode with the same theme with Alice.

"Don't laugh"

Damon blurred on me and pushed me to the hood of my car. When I kept laughing he tried to compel me and I just laughed harder he scowled and left tossing over his shoulder

"Be ready in an hour. I'm not going solo"

"Sir, yes, sir"

I saluted still laughing and went inside. After spelling Lexi's bracelet I put it in a black velvet pouch and showered quickly. Realizing I had no idea what to wear I did what any girl does. I called my fashionista mentor

"Phoebe Halliwell"

Her voice rang professionally.

"I need advice"

I said in my best valley tone girl. Phoebe is an advice columnist for one of the most successful magazines in San Francisco.

"I'm sorry miss you need to send a letter..."

She began to apologize and I chuckle

"What does a witch wear to an event where her date is being auctioned for charity?"

She gasped and shouted

"Bella?"

"Hi"

We spent a few minutes catching up laughing. Pure had met a guy, Cole proposed again (he had been doing so every six months since I resurrected him) but she said 'yes' this time and piper was expecting. They saw Paige every week and surprisingly their sisterly bond was now better than ever.

"Wait you have a new boyfriend?"

I rolled my eyes

"I told you about all the supernatural crap in this town and you're asking if I have a boyfriend? I knew I should have called Prue"

I teased her. Are both known that the sisters had their roles down perfect and style was certainly phoebe's. She freaking fought demons in designer clothes and jimmy choos for crying out loud

"How many times have you slept with him again?"

She poked fun

"Nothing happened"

I exclaimed feeling my cheeks blaze up

"You so like him"

She kept poking fun but retreated when I threaded to hang up on her. I walked her through my wardrobe and while she liked a few things she picked none

"We are printing an article with evening dresses next week. See a few pics"

She emailed me pictures of a few dresses and we went through them together. I thought a simple black dress would do but she scowled as if I had proposed to wear jeans. In the end she picked a dark red dress with sequins on the bustier and its deep V neckline and organza in the skirt that made it playful.

"It's beautiful"

I breathed. Phoebe urged me to take it and using one of Paige's powers I copied the dress and it appeared laid out on my bed. Phoebe ordered me to take a picture and we said our goodbyes. I got dressed quickly in the Elise Ryan dress, making sure to put on a flesh colored La Perla thong (I learned long ago to never fight with a fashionista) and picked a pair of golden high heeled strappy sandals from my closet and their matching clutch bag. I pulled my hair up in a casual updo leaving a few tendrils to frame my face and copied the makeup on the photo phoebe attached to the email. Taking my pendant off I wrapped it around my left wrist making sure it was tight and put on a white gold heart locket and its matching teardrop earrings. Smiling I took a picture and mailed to phoebe just as the doorbell rang.

I knew I had done something right when Damon's mouth popped open. I closed with a smile

"You'll catch flies"

"You look beautiful"

"And you look dashing"

He drove us fast to the grill where everything seems to happen. The moment we stepped inside I could practically feel the lust coming from .female in the room.

"Everything alright?"

Damon steadied me as the lust almost overtook me. I smirked

"Good luck"

He sobered and glared at me before pressing something in my palm. I looked to see a total black credit card. I raised an eyebrow

"Don't let any of the rags buy me"

"Why not? You can't have slept with all of them!"

"Promise!"

He glared and I held back a smile

"I promise"

"On your life"

He threatened

"On your life"

I repeated smiling. He glared at me and left to join Alaric who looked equally unpleased. I shook my head laughing and went to the bar where Lexi and Stefan were talking quietly

"Not signing up?"

"I'm under 21"

Stefan smirked happily. I laughed as Damon threaded to kill us all to Alaric who nodded eagerly. I pulled the pouch from my purse and handed it to Lexi. Her eyes widened as she saw her bracelet and she hugged me tightly.

"Thank you"

Stefan breathed and hugged me too. I smiled at them both and Stefan asked for a dance. No one was dancing to the soft music so we just swayed

"Why did you do it?"

"You're a good judge of character Stefan"

I replied simply. Together we went to greet Liz Forbes who was talking with the mayor's wife watching as the mayor was naturally teasing his brother for sighing up since he has a steady girlfriend. Gone was the asshole mayor I was introduced to as the arrival of his brother had seemed to mellow him out as well as the extra help to make sure his son never triggered the family curse.

I watched with my new friends as the lights dimmed and carol Lockwood took it upon herself to start selling off almost all the eligible men of the town.

Mason was sold to Liz for twenty grand, a couple deputies were sold for less than a grand to two sisters, Lexi took pity on Alaric when he was on stage and bought him for five grand making a few moms glare at her and I pretended to be in deep conversation with Rosalie when it was Damon's turn. It seemed like he was having fun smiling to the women in this club and I stepped up only when it seemed like they would start throwing their panties to him. Jasper was doubled over with laughter when I raised my hand not even paying attention to the fifty grand Damon would pay to buy himself.

"See? I told you no one had enough money to buy me"

Damon smirked.

"Yeah, you're the eternal stud"

I joked using the nickname he had called himself while sleeping. He rolled his eyes at me but I just smiled at him

"And you're mine"


	16. What happens in Mystic, stays in Mystic

Chapter 15 – What happens in Mystic, stays in Mystic

The rest of the night was a big blur. I remember dancing with pretty much everyone although I was mostly in Damon's arms, I remember drinking with Lexi, Caroline and Rosalie, I even have a few glimpses of playing pool with Lexi because, like all the other vampires in my life, she refused to not let me play.

I don't remember however going home with Damon and I certainly don't remember losing my clothes and finally sleeping with him. I slept like a baby and only woke up when I felt my body being violently pulled and the feeling of cold underneath me.

I popped open one eye, suddenly alert and saw that I was in a closed space. It was small, smelled musty with scents of death and pure evil hanging in the air.

The underworld.

I had only been down here once when Cole said I had to know my enemy in order to kill him so I had fixed us potions and he gave me the grand tour. Beltazor was dead and he was human but he remembered the place fairly well so we were undetected. Using that very same knowledge I hid in the rocks and watched as the room was occupied by two people, one large armchair, almost like a throne, a large cauldron and a big slab that resembled a table.

"I want answers"

The man shouted. He was tall with dark hair slinged back and fiery eyes. He was dressed in a dark cloak and spoke with a deep accent that seemed British. His voice sent tremors of fear inside me as my brain began going through of demons trying to rank him.

"It's been a year and you have given me nothing"

The man shouted again. On a smaller, less throne like, chair sat a woman looking bored. She was also in her mid forties, looking elegant and clad in a cloak of lighter color.

"Relax Mikael. The chips are falling on place, you know that. Soon she will be ours and we will rule"

The man, Mikael glared at her and she looked down correcting herself

"You will rule everything"

"I better will"

The man spat and sat on the throne. His eyes traveled to where I was hiding and I held in my breath hoping he wouldn't see me

"seer"

He shouted and to my immense surprise Alice appeared. She was wearing the same scrap of fabric that first witch I killed for the nexus. Her golden eyes burned red and she looked fearful.

"Yes Master?"

"Do you have any progress? What have you seen?"

Alice took a breath she didn't need and walked to the cauldron. I took a hesitant step towards it too hoping my naked skin wouldn't attract too much attention to me.

"She keeps thwarting my plans Master. I have seen that you will succeed though and I always am right"

She announced. In the black liquid of the cauldron I could see myself wearing the same dark cloak as her Master pledging an allegiance with my blood. Then I was standing on a beach at nighttime with the moon heavy and perfectly round above us assisting a blond guy in some sort of ritual. The last scene showed the woman dead by Mikael's feet with me in her place and a dark choker around my neck. On our feet all of the people I ever cared about were dead but I was smiling an evil smile. Mikael smiled and dismissed Alice who was gone in an instant. Then he called on Carlisle who appeared with a shimmer. His eyes were also red and he was dressed in a dark grey cloak.

"Are you successful?"

"Yes Master"

Carlisle replied obediently

"Edward has the doppelganger safe; the fool thinks he loves her. We are merely waiting for Niklaus to take notice and show up"

"Very well. He shall be there soon"

With a wave of his hand he dismissed Carlisle and turned on the woman who had an evil smile

"And then the brothers will rule"

Mikael threw his head back and laughed. The woman however smiled and looked at me straight in the eyes and spoke to my mind

"Protect them. The brothers in arms will need you girl"

I nodded unconsciously as my brain finally registered the identity of the man.

He was the Source

I woke up from my own scream as a pair of hands kept shaking me

"Bella, Bella wake up"

Many voices were calling out to me but the moment my eyes opened they found a pair of icy blue eyes that looked alarmed and I flung myself at him holding on for deal life not noticing our bodies colliding. Damon's arms wrapped around me tightly and he tried to sooth me as our bodies melted together and I wept on his bare shoulder. Someone wrapped some sort of cloth around me as I fought to regain control.

Taking a few deep breaths I opened my eyes and saw Stefan lingering by the open door dressed only in a pair of boxers that had Donald duck on them. I blinked.

"Are you alright?"

Lexis's soft voice asked me from her perch on our side. I nodded automatically

"Bad dream"

I lied. She narrowed her eyes at me but nodded leaving the room with Stefan. I made no move to extract me from Damon's arms and he made no move to set me down either. He rocked us until I felt him inside me and gasped

"Don't think, just feel"

He half growled in my ear and for the first time in the two months I had moved here I took someone's advice. I just felt shutting my brain completely.

When we rode our highs we were laying on the bed still entwined.

"What did you see?"

He whispered. I looked at him and relayed everything that I had seen during my dream? Vision? Astral projection? He took it all in with his expression hardening.

"You have friends to protect you. I will protect you"

He vowed. I shook my head with awry laugh

"A vampire is like a fly against a witch Damon. You'll be killed"

He tried to argue but my examples of how easy it would be to kill them all shut him up. For a moment. Then he tried to show me how easy it is for a vampire to kill an unsuspecting witch. In the end we agreed to disagree.

"Take my mind off of it?"

"Yes?"

He rubbed his hands over mine

"Make love to me"

"With pleasure

We spent the day in bed alternating between talking and making love. If Phoebe still had her powers, I'd think she had seen us and that's why she insisted on that dress. The same dress that laid on the bedroom floor torn in shreds.

"Stay"

Damon pouted

"The human needs to eat"

I pouted back and stole his black shirt from the floor. It missed all of the buttons but two. Seems like he was not the only one eager to get us to bed. He put his jeans back on and we went in the kitchen to make something to eat and Damon grabbed himself a drink. My throat was peppered with love bites and a few actual bites from the night before.

Raiding their fridge, which was strangely stocked, I made a large omelet with yellow and green peppers and some French fries and began to eat. Damon claimed he didn't want to eat but he ended up stealing my fries.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god"

Someone screeched. I winced and put my head in my hands

"Caroline if you don't shut up I'm gonna snap your neck"

I growled and someone laughed. I threw a glare at Damon who was innocently eating my fries

"Nice jammies Bella"

Rosalie joked making me blush. Damon's shirt may be reaching to my mid-thigh but it IS Damon's shirt. The man in question smirked

"Jealous Blondie?"

Rosalie looked about to kill him but Lexi interrupted her

"You got married?"

"No!"

I replied immediately. She grabbed my right hand

"You sure about that?"

True rough, when I looked at my hand a beautiful ring sat on my ring finger. It was delicate in the shape of a flower with a small diamond sitting in the middle of it. With trembling eyes I looked at Damon who looked equally freaked out and sure rough a flower-less version of the same ring sat on his finger.

Feeling my omelet making its way up inside me I dashed to the downstairs bathroom to empty my stomach.

"I'd have the same reaction if I woke up married to you"

Lexi snorted. I heard a crack as Damon snapped her neck


	17. Most of the time

Chapter 16 – Most of the time

"You okay?"

Rosalie said in a joking tone as I glared at her from my position in front of the porcelain goddess

"How much did I drink?"

"You were all night with a drink in hand"

She shrugged.

"You two have been joined at the hip for days, are you that upset you got married?"

She asked with a frown. I laughed it off and quickly rinsed my mouth in the sink

"Actually I'm throwing up as a result of my dream"

"What Dream?"

I shook my head not answering and we returned to the kitchen together. Damon was having his brother in a chokehold while everyone else was laughing at them. Then I remembered

"Donald duck? Seriously?"

Stefan's face got all veiny and fangy as he glared at me.

"Donald duck?"

Caroline snorted. Stefan growled and flipped Damon over his shoulder. Caroline kept laughing at them while Lexi shook her head.

"Boys will be boys"

I bit my lip trying not to laugh at the boys' antics

"Rosalie, can you call the rest of the family? Except alike, Carlisle and Esme? I need to talk to you guys"

She nodded and pulled out her phone to start making phone calls. Lexi looked at me from top to bottom

"You need to get dressed"

I groaned realizing she was right.

"I'll go home and change"

"You can put something of mine. I owe you"

Lexi smiled and danced in front of the sunlight. I smiled and nodded

"Thanks"

I searched for Damon with my eyes but he was staring at his new ring and not looking at me. I followed Lexi to Stefan's room. It was identical to Damon's only much more bright and sunny. I looked at Lexi when we both saw the mess of women clothes thrown all around the room

"Don't tell me he's a cross dresser?"

Lexi laughed

"Nah, those are mine"

I raised an eyebrow and laughing she threw me a pair of jeans and a black set of underwear. The bra was a little small but the panties fit perfectly.

"How can you wear a thong all day?"

"They're comfortable"

"They feel like a permanent wedgie"

I complained but put them on along with a pair of light blue distressed jeans that hung low on my hips. I put Damon's shirt back on and tied it to a knot right above my belly button and my pendant back on. It made me feel balanced while Damon's shirt had a strangely calming effect engulfing me in the familiar scent.

On the desk, next to cherry chapstick, was a picture of Elena in period clothes and curls.

"Katherine?"

She nodded. Someone had drawn horns, glasses and a moustache on it

"Nice accessories"

I joked and Lexi looked at me with an angelic smile.

"Your horns are showing"

I poked fun at her.

"I didn't do it. Not all of it"

She exclaimed. After a wild night last night Stefan had gotten drank and the two vampires messed the picture together. Laughing we returned downstairs to find Stefan and Damon still messing around, this time with football.

"What the hell happened to them?"

I asked Lexi who looked equally mystified. Caroline snorted from her place on the coffee table.

"They got laid and it wasn't by Elena"

Rosalie laughed as well stealing the ball from the men. Damon glared at her; Rosalie smiled and threw the ball straight in his gut. Cold ones are physically stronger so Damon got hit. To my immense surprise Stefan stood by his big brother's side and the two attacked Rosalie.

Lexi rolled her eyes and whistled loudly threatening them to force them to watch Titanic if they didn't stop. Both Salvatores froze immediately.

"Boys will be boys"

Caroline laughed and we all sat down in the vast living room. Rosalie (who for once wasn't in heels) plopped down next to Caroline on a large armchair, Lexi sat with Stefan on a setee and I took a set on another armchair. Damon busied himself with making drinks.

It's five o'clock somewhere in the world eh?

I summoned the Book from my house.

_"I call upon the ancient power _

_To help me in this darkest hour. _

_Let the Book leave it's place,_

_Claim refuge in this space."_

Ignoring the startled moves from the vampires I told my complete story to them starting from meeting the Cullens to James and co, to san Francisco, to the prophesy on my shoulders, to the vision that started it all, Lucy Bennet, bonnie Bennet and this last astral projection.

"I'm sorry Rosalie"

I said to the stunned Hale. She chuckled darkly

"It's not that surprising actually, our house is like a war zone lately"

She then proceeded to inform everyone else what jasper and Edward had told me. ever since moving here Carlisle had gone off the rails and insisted on his children mingling with their new classmates, he had been against Jasper teaching someone new and had insisted on the family playing human, he would also disappear randomly and be grim when he came back. Rosalie had overheard him mutter and grumble about obeying different masters sometimes.

"Frankly he scares me"

The badass vampire girl admitted. Rosalie Hale never admits her feelings but this one wasn't the bitch I remember, guess friends really do change people.

"In that projection both Alice and Carlisle had red eyes"

I said out loud. Rosalie flinched as if she had been slapped. She always prided herself to having a control almost as good as Carlisle's.

"How red?"

"Too red"

I remembered Jasper's eyes. He had been on the human wagon for almost a month and his eyes still had a shred of golden flecks lost in the general redness.

"Can red eyes look golden with lenses?"

Lexi asked. Rosalie's face had set to a perfect poker face as she shook her head 'no'

"But they can with a spell"

I whispered remembering a covering spell Paige had taught me. Suddenly Stefan hit himself on the head

"stef?"

Lexi touched his hand but the vampire kept hitting his head. Damon leapt to him to hold his hands back.

"Why can't I remember?"

"Remember what brother?"

He asked in a soft tone

"That name, I know it"

"What name? Mikael?"

Stefan nodded

"Can a vampire be compelled?"

Caroline asked. Lexi shook her head 'no'. Biting my lip I knelt next to him and placed my hands on his cheeks

_" Thoughts, Beliefs, Ideas, Truths, Images and Memories,_

_All of these you have lost,_

_you will now remember"_

I casted the spell on him clearly. his eyes unfocused for a moment before he snarled and putting his hands on my arms, he threw me away backwards and with a thud I landed in a pair of cold arms that jumped up to catch me

"Thanks Rosalie"

"Call me Rose"

I smiled in appreciation.

"That asshole"

Stefan screamed. Damon grabbed his brother's arms again

"Talk to me"

"I met a guy in the 20s. Also a vampire, he had a sister and said this Mikael dude was his father"

Stefan spat. Wordlessly Caroline handed him a tall glass of scotch and Stefan drank it all at once while Lexi was rubbing his shoulders. Five heartbeats later Stefan indulged in the story of how he met this guy, Klaus and his sister Rebekah in the '20s in Chicago. It was a time where he had given in his inner ripper and shut his humanity off. He and the sister got in a relationship (Lexi frowned at that) and he and the brother were like brothers (Damon frowned at that). They were on the run from their father, Mikael, and he last saw them when the man found them. Same day when he was compelled to forget both of them.

I frowned at the names. I know those names. I took my Book and went back to thumbing through it. They were included in the pages dedicated to vampires. I rubbed a hand on my face

"They were the Originals"

Rosalie blinked

"Did you say Originals?"

"Yes"

"When I was a newborn, I overheard Carlisle telling Edward as story of how he was turned"

"The one Edward told me?"

"No, that was the one they told everyone else. What I heard him say was different. He said our whole kind had been created by a man named Klaus who wanted a new family. He was different from us but we were like this. Not only that but Carlisle himself was turned by him as well"

"I thought Carlisle was turned by a passing vampire"

"So did I"

"Why did he create cold ones if he was a normal vampire?"

Caroline asked, receiving a glare by the blond cold one. She shrugged

"What?"

"Because he wasn't a normal vampire"

Damon read from the Book from his place on the arm of the chair I was sitting on.

"The mother had an affair with a werewolf. Maybe the wolf genes screwed up with the vampire blood?"

He asked sipping his scotch. Going to the werewolf pages I shrugged one shoulder.

"Could be. To activate the wolf genes you need to kill someone. I'm going to assume the entire family killed people"

"Makes sense"

Stefan agreed. As everyone began talking at the same time I slumped backwards landing on a shoulder.

"This is so not the honeymoon I ever thought"

Damon snickered. I slapped his shoulder with a smile

"What? No weird original vampires to kill us all or witches?"

"No I'm good with that"

"Then?"

"We should be having hot monkey sex"

I stared at him unsmiling

"Only if it's on my parents' bed. I always wanted to do it there"

He waggled his eyebrows.

"What are we gonna do about this?"

I pointed to his wedding ring. He shrugged with indifference. I mimicked him sipping my coffee.

"When my mom remarried she had me checking in how long before she could divorce, just in case she was making a major mistake. It was a month"

I told him quietly.

"We have to stay married for a month?"

His scotch flew out of his nose in his surprise. I nodded

"Hey, I don't like it anymore than you do"

I told him. It wasn't a lie; me and the word 'marriage' do not go together.

"Hide it for a month and file for annulment?"

"Or compel for one"

He gave me a cheeky smile and I nodded.

"Are we going to have sex at least?"

"Hell yea. I married you; I got to get something out of it too"

With a start we realized everyone had shut up and was staring. I blushed.

"So, what do we do?"

Lexi took pity on my flushed face and asked distracting the others.

"Keeping up the ruse?"

Caroline proposed. Rosalie, Caroline and Lexi decided to go to the movies as planned only they'd ask if Alice and bonnie wanted to join them and Stefan proposed a hunting party to Richmond. Edward had spotted a few mountain lions apparently.

As for me I had a full day ahead of me. With about two weeks before the full moon (the new moon was the night before) I needed to find more about that vampire business and what it had in common with the Source.

**A/N: Okay guys, I have to ask you something. The next chapter can go in both ways and it's up to you to decide. It can either be smut with a bit of plot or just plot. You decide and let me know? **


	18. Being married

Chapter 17 – Being married (the M edition)

**A/N: Since no one said 'no' I'm going in with the smutty chapter. Rating for this chapter is "M" people!**

What better way to do that than go to the source. And that source was in San Francisco, in a Victorian house and most importantly to the vast attic that held detailed journals of all the magical transactions the sisters have had.

Lucky me the Manor was empty but unfortunately I couldn't find anything I didn't already know. The sisters had used the Power of three and Cole (who was a package deal with the Hollow at the time) to vanquish the source and then the vanquished Cole himself (aka the source 2.0) a few times until it stuck.

I left the manor before anyone could catch me and went back home only to find out I had spent all day in the charmed (dusty) attic. Oh, well.

Que sera, sera. Right?

**No pov**

"We need thicker walls"

He snarled to himself hearing his baby brother and his new bedmate go at it loudly. Grabbing a brand new bottle of scotch he climbed up to the roof to drink it and think. When had Stefan gotten over Katherine? When had he himself for that matter?

Making himself comfortable on the angled roof he took a large swing of the amber liquid. He was so certain his vampire lover needed him once but in the past month, ever since he had found out that she didn't in fact need him at all, the curly haired vicious woman hadn't entered his thoughts.

At all.

Not even fleetingly.

Instead his mind had been busy with other people. His brother for one, he and Stefan were closer (even though not as close as they were when they were humans) but they were close maybe even friendly, which is exactly why he had taken refuge on the roof. Listening to your brother doing the double backed monster is far less fun when you care for him. At any other time, Damon would have opened the door and comment on the actions. Yean, he's an asshole.

He took another swing of the amber liquid. Within a month he had made a human... friend, even though Alaric couldn't hold his alcohol. The man wanted his head on a plate and his guts wrapped around a stake, and he was right to according to Jasper. Damon HAD in fact killed Alaric's wife. His cold one best friend and Bella had tag teamed him and gotten to agree to not kill Alaric but compel him to take his pain away and find peace. Damon didn't like it, but agreed to it.

He'd gotten over a misplaced attraction on the human Elena, seeing her cling to her cold one boyfriend, while giving blow jobs to her human ex-boyfriend and flirt with both Stefan and himself. When it sounds, moves, talks and acts like Katherine, it's better to leave it alone.

He'd became a member of an anti-vampire council (oh the irony), had gotten sold off to the highest bidder and he'd gotten married. Can't forget that one.

The simple, white gold band on his right ring finger gleamed in the moonlight mocking him. in his 170 years he'd never gotten so drunk to not remember what heed' done the night before, no he left that for idiots on movies, but last night he did just that. He wasn't sure if he regretted it though because his brand new wife was...

His attention was attracted to a pale figure on a nearby roof. A figure snapping opens a lighter. In the ward, red flame he saw the face he had been thinking about. His wife. Bella Swan. The witch who had stopped him from killing a family. The witch who kept Katherine away. The witch he had spent a month having as a drink and bed buddy. The witch he drank from that same morning.

and the witch he now craved. Not that he would admit to it of course.

He smirked as he saw her light her cigarette, taking a deep puff, hold it and exhale the white smoke. Breathe holding that sounds promising, he thought to him taking another gulp of his drink. She took another puff and he found his eyes locked to those plump lips of hers. Oh, who was he kidding?

With a breath he jumped to the ground, run through their back yards and climbed next to her before she could blink

"EH"

He laughed as she yelped and her hand flew to her chest.

"Don't do that. I'm way too young to have a heart attack"

She scolded him. Pushing her wet hair behind her hear he smiled

"You're shivering"

"I didn't think this through; I just needed some fresh air"

She blushed raising her cigarette to her lips.

"Smoking can kill you"

He poked fun

"So can you and the source and a million other things"

She replied with a side smile. Something in her voice told him she had had the same conversation before. Putting an arm around her he stole a puff of her cigarette. With a sigh she put her head to his shoulder and the two sat there for a while each lost to their own minds.

"How was your day?"

"Stefan made me eat a deer"

Damon complained. Bella rolled her eyes and turned around to face him.

"You're such a baby"

She laughed. Damon's eyes tightened at her and letting the bottle stumble out of his grasp he set on tickling her. Shouting Bella pushed him back attempting to grab his hands and hold them on air. He didn't even remember when wads the last time he laughed like that and suddenly he was flying.

With a 'thump' he landed on the soft grass and a giggling Bella landed on top of him pinning him on the ground.

"Oh my god, are you okay?"

She laughed with her hair flowing wild on her shoulders. Damon growled deep in his throat and pulling her by the back of her neck he kissed her.

***** STOP HERE IF YOU ONLY WANT PLOT PEOPLE. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU*****

The kiss was hard, their tongues fought as their lips moving hard against each other, teeth nibbling on lips and tongue as breath sounded heavily against heated skin.

She had a smug look on her face once more as she held his bottom lip between her lips and teeth. Their eyes connected as she pulled ever so slightly. Reclaiming her lips with a hiss Damon stood upright locking his hands right below her hips. He felt her smile against his lips as her back collided with the glass balcony doors. Her left eyebrow was raised when she pulled back to look at him.

"Come inside Damon?"

"Don't mind if I do"

After they'd moaned and groaned unintelligible words into the night air Bella fell asleep in his arms, stealing his shirt. Damon stayed awake for a while with his hand pressed against her stomach holding her to him.

He liked being able to sleep with her. HE had never actually slept with someone since his second life began and had forgotten how much warmth another body could generate. He was incredibly cold until he woke with her warm body spooned in his that morning.

"I'm becoming Stefan"

He complained before forcing himself to follow Bella in slumber wrapped thoroughly in a feminine, sweet yet fruity scent.

He woke up several hours later with the sun seeping in the east facing room bathing everything in a golden light. He smiled to himself feeling his morning hardness still buried deep within the still sleeping form of Bella Swan who appeared to be having a very good dream.

Her moans frightened him for a second until he heard his name being chanted and moaned against his chest. He smiled wickedly, his ego entirely boosted by the fact that he featured in her dreams; those kinds of dreams.

He swept her hair back and showered sloppy wet kisses on her neck and shoulders, enjoying her soft groans anytime he nipped and bit at her flesh stopping right before he actually bit her.

He rolled his hips against hers, putting friction and pressure on that sweet spot inside of her. She shivered deliciously against him and moaned loudly.

"God, you're beautiful"

Even so he continued to move his hips, his now rock hard length sliding slightly inside her creating more friction and increasing the speed of their breathing.

"Oh god"

She said quietly, her brow tense and eyes screwed shut. Her hips began to move in time with his.

"Call me Damon"

He whispered in her ear making her laugh. He took him opportunity to put a finger in her mouth pushing deeper inside her every time she bit on his finger.

"I want to see you."

She panted biting hard on his finger moaning as she felt herself being stretched with each push.

Damon stilled for a moment and brought his arm from under her neck and propped himself up on his elbow, then leaning over her and began thrusting once more harder and faster this time.

Her head turned towards him and her eyes met his. He almost lost it at the sight of such lust in those dark eyes. They stared deep into each others eyes as they soared towards their climaxes.

Not once did their gazes waiver as climax crashed though them and their joint cry echoed through the room. Eyes still connected he slid gently from her and rolled her onto her back before settling between her thighs and pressing his lips to hers.

They kissed achingly slowly; his hands at her waist trailing up and down her sides, her hands smoothing across his shoulders and down his sweaty back.

"I'm exhausted"

He admitted, his eyes closed.

"Me too"

"You can't tire out a vampire"

He complained

"Is that a challenge?"

She smirked poking her fingers on his fangs laughing loudly feeling them enter her stomach.


	19. Undaggering a sister

Chapter 18 – Undaggering a sister

**Bella POV**

with a groan I did my best to stand up. And failed horribly.

"Is everything okay?"

A laughing Damon was sitting at the edge of my bed looking thoroughly pleased with him.

"Don't laugh at me"

I complained with a pout.

"It's your fault I'm completely sexed out"

"Who wanted to see if it's possible to tire out a vampire?"

He snickered and I pouted more. He was right, it was my fault. Stealing his black silken shirt I plopped myself with another groan on his lap.

"One thing my mother taught me, it's always the husband's fault"

I smiled at him ignoring his rolling icy blue eyes. With a smirk he bit into his wrist and held it up.

"Dig in wife"

He smirked. I shook my head

"I shouldn't like this"

I commented offhandedly and lapped at the blood oozing from the wound. All the times I've smelt blood it disgusted it but drinking Damon's was more of a juicy fruit than the coppery taste of blood. Strange yet yummy! As I drank I felt fingers pushing my hair away from my neck and teeth sinking in.

"I always drink too much from you"

He muttered against my neck. I licked my lips crossing my legs.

"Breakfast?"

"Sure, hey is that my shirt?"

"Yep"

Able now to move properly I bundled down the stairs and began making myself a mayo, egg and cheese sandwich. I was about to have that first bite, I was ravenous, another mouth bit it.

"Hey!"

"What yours is mine"

With that he slapped my butt and blurred out the kitchen door.

A few hours later after a long shower I pushed open the 'magic door', a hot pan in my hands and I stopped dead on my tracks.

"Mom?"

My mother swirled around with her eyes wide.

"Baby"

She rushed to hug me making sure she wouldn't get burned. I put the heavy pan on the kitchen counter

"What are you doing here?"

"Your father told me of your weekly dinners. I thought I'd join you"

She lied easily. I hid a smile and nodded

"Sure. Help me serve?"

Mom may know how to lie properly, but Charlie doesn't, he blushes horribly. His lips were painted with a bright reddish orange, the same shade mom's were.

"Nice lipstick, what brand is it?"

Have you ever seen a cop freeze? Neither had I

"Hi Bells"

Dad stuttered. It's quite cute actually.

"How was your week?"

He changed the subject

"Pretty good. We had a bachelor raft the other day. Lots of single women in Mystic Falls. And you guys?"

"Us?"

Mom's eyes widened. I nodded chewing on my hot potato

"The teaching, the sheriffing"

They looked at each other before hasting to speak. Mom insisted everything was okay at the magic school and mom stated everything is nice and quiet in forks. We lapsed into an uncomfortable silence while we ate. We never sat as a family to eat before, just the three of us. I pushed one stray strand of hair uncomfortably behind my ear when mom gasped

"What is that young lady?"

Crap. I looked at my ring trying to come up with an excuse

"We had a fair after the bachelor raft. I thought it was pretty"

I shrugged one shoulder. Too bad I can't lie either. My own face flushed

"Uh huh"

Charlie turned his Charlie-glare on me as he sipped his beer. I felt my body clenching.

"Are you pregnant?"

My eyes snapped to him

"God no!"

It's not like vampires can have children.

"Then why?"

Mom tilted her head to the side

"How long have you two been sleeping together?"

I threw the ball back and breathed in relief as they both froze and began fidgeting.

"We're trying a few things out baby"

"Are you okay with that?"

Charlie asked carefully. I looked at them before nodding

"As long as you know what you're doing and no one gets hurt, I'm cool with it"

I smiled and watched them both relax. Seems like I'm not the only one with a busy week

I was still laughing when returning to my own house abit before midnight. After the awkward dinner mom had put a movie and we had all sat together to watch it. Mom asked again if I was pregnant because 'I am glowing'. When I replied it's the result of numerous earth shuttering orgasms dad grabbed his service gun and demanded to meet the guy. I steered them off and to the movie.

"Hi Stefan"

I said surprised opening the door to throw the trash out.

"Are you busy?"

"Nope, come on in"

I put the large bag in the trash and sat with him to my living room.

"Do you need something to drink?"

"No, I'm good. I remembered something"

"Tell me"

"Remember I told you about having a relationship with Rebekah in the '20s?"

"Yes, the original sister"

"She had mentioned something about a curse"

"A curse"

"Yes, it was about in allowing Klaus to turn people. I wasn't paying a lot of attention"

"Most curses require sacrifices which would explain my vision"

I bit my lip

"Think she'll try to kill me if I try talking to her?"

"Yes and I have no idea where she is"

"Do you have anything of hers?"

He nodded

"Her pendant. It fell from her neck when they left"

"I can use it to track her down if you don't mind me borrowing it"

"Sure. I'll bring it right over"

With a nod of his head he was suddenly gone and returned with a velvet box not a full minute later. With a jerk of my head I showed him the attic and unwrapped the amulet. It was beautiful with a delicate design and a hematite stone on it. As I touched it I got hit with an image of a blond guy stabbing a blond girl and gasper

"Are you okay?"

Stefan was quick to wrap an arm around me. I nodded and wrapped the pendant around my amethyst talisman and hovered it above a map of the states. I performed the tracking ritual three more times until I had an address in Chicago.

"Been in Chicago recently?"

"No"

"Great"

Grabbing a small pouch with the necessary potions I asked Stefan to be my tour guy in Chicago.

"Sure"

He nodded smiling. I smiled back, took his hand in mine, put the pouch in a purse and threw one transporting potion to the ground. With a cloud of orbs we found ourselves in a large park in Chicago. Tightening my pea-coat around me I looked at him expectantly

"Some on tour guy"

It had taken us a whole hour to find the address but we did find it. It was a mausoleum in a central yet close cemetery. I shivered as Stefan jumped up over the gate.

"Afraid of ghosts?"

He chuckled.

"No. afraid of walking into a trap"

I muttered and watched as he broke the lock easily. Right after arriving in Chicago I had put an invincibility spell on us making to sure to cover our scents too. Inside the mausoleum were a long row of coffins, all of them brand new. Stefan began uncovering them one by one as I could hear my own hear beating loudly in my ears.

In the coffins was a young man in his early twenties, an older man in his thirties, a girl in a flapper dress, looking to be a teenager and one more coffin. It was locked and as much as Stefan tried to pry it open it wouldn't budge. Putting both my hands on it I visualized chains leaving it and when Stefan tried again we saw that the person inside it was the woman from my vision.

Quickly I snapped photos of all of them and Stefan covered all the coffins except the one with the girl. In her chest was plunged a dagger adorned in rubies. Exchanging a look with Stefan I pulled it out of her. She remained unmoving for a moment giving me time to make a copy of the dagger and put it in my purse.

Sometimes I love magic.

Rebekah gasped and fought for breath for a moment as all color returned to her skin. Stefan quickly fed her a blood bag he had the good sense to bring. She was pretty, I decided and annoyed.

"Hi lover"

She greeted Stefan with a kiss. I cleared my throat making Stefan all but throw her back in the coffin.

"Hi, I'm Bella"

"Hello, I'm Rebekah"

She spoke with a European accent. Her light blue eyes traveled all over us and the mausoleum as if she was deciding if we (I) was worth living and if so, what was my importance to her.

"I know. Why is your father so hell bent on killing you and your siblings?"

I cut to the chase. Her eyes froze over for a moment

"I have no idea what you're talking about"

She replied coolly. Tapping into Edward's mind reading power I scanned her mind quickly. She was thinking about her father (in longish hair) growling something about his children being evil and having to die. Then her thoughts flied to a discussion held in an office of sorts. herself, the man from the club when I was out with Jenna and the blond guy I saw in my vision were talking about the importance of the doppelganger and how Elijah had better keep it in his pants till the sacrifice was done.

My concentration was broken as a pair of cool hands was around my throat and I was pushed backwards against a wall. Rebekah's veiny face was up close to mine.

"Get out of my head"

She snarled and squeezed tighter. Without thinking I threw my hands up causing her to explode and fell to the ground coughing. Stefan was fallen to the side, his head snapped in an impossible position and all around us were the millions vampire particles that were formerly known as Rebekah.

Oops


	20. Oh the thoughts and memories

Chapter 19 – Oh the thoughts and memories

I should know by now that when a supernatural being dies, it's never easy or straightforward. Within a few moments. almost right as Stefan's broken neck snapped back into place, the dust all around us got stuck back into place giving the pissed off original daughter.

"You killed me"

She exclaimed surprised

"You tried to kill me"

I pointed to myself and my now healed neck. Stefan chuckled under his breath coming to stand between us.

"Rebekah, we need your help"

"My help? Why would I help you?"

She spat. Stefan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose; he spends too much time around Edward. Taking both Rebekah's hands in his own Stefan told everything to Rebekah. She seemed to take it well, all things considered.

"How did you kill me?"

She asked bringing me to the present

"I'm a witch"

"I was too"

She said quietly

"Did you got your powers bound?"

"No, I became a vampire and lost them"

She whispered. I furrowed my brows, since when do you lose your powers upon turning to a vampire?

"If I let you live, will you help us Rebekah or are you going to stand with your father and family?"

I asked her clearly. Her eyes traveled between Stefan, who had remained quiet, and me.

"I love my brother but he hurt me. He put me to sleep so no, I won't be joining him"

She spat. She was sincere but she was also angry. Stefan met my eyes and nodded slightly believing her. I signed and passed my hand through my hair.

"One condition. You're on our side, not your families. Cross me and I'll kill you, permanently this time"

"And If I'm a good girl?"

She mocked and I smirked

"I'll do my best to restore your magic"

Her eyes widened.

"Deal or no deal?"

She looked at Stefan

"I trust her Rebekah. She's okay"

"Deal"

Rebekah agreed holding her hand out. I shook it. With a yawn I told her and Stefan to hold hands, took her own in mine and threw the last vial with teleportation potion to the ground.

We appeared in the entrance hall of the Salvatore boarding house. Damon was watching a movie looking pissed off. Next to him Lexi was busy with painting her nails looking proud. Damon's flesh colored nails explained why

"Do I even want to know?"

Stefan sighed. Lexi smirked and shook her head.

"Which one is my room?"

Rebekah asked with a slight bitch in her tone that went against her scared eyes.

"Who's she?"

Damon asked penitently ignoring Lexi who was waving a bottle of sparkly red nail polish near him.

"Rebekah, she's our insider"

"She'll be staying here"

Stefan added. Lexis's eyes traveled to Rebekah sizing her up before smiling widely

"I'll show you to a room"

Grabbing Rebekah's hand the two vampires were gone from the room.

"What have I gotten myself into?"

Stefan sighed with a weird smile. I felt a similar one tugging my lips

"Try not to kill at each other?"

I asked them all before making a beeline for the exit.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Home, to bed. I'm exhausted"

I complained and found myself lifted in the air. I was asleep lying in Damon's arms before I even hit his bed.

I woke up thanks to my cell phone and it took me a moment to find it and turn it off before it woke up the entire neighborhood. It was almost seven am and next to me slept Damon. He looked young and childish. My favorite part though? The moment I escaped from under his hand, his fist went to his face and his thumb got in his mouth. I shouldn't be doing this but I snapped a photo of him before grabbing my boots and tip toeing out of the room. Downstairs Stefan was drinking a full mug of something that smelt too much like blood.

"You look awful"

He glared over the rim of his drink.

"You try sleeping under the same roof with an ex and a current girlfriend"

"No, thank you"

"Which one are you sleeping with?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Lexi is my friend. I don't want to see her getting hurt Stefan"

"Rebekah and I have history but it's Lexi. I think I'm in love with her"

He whispered with a soft smile tugging on the corners of his lips. I smiled and hugged him

"Good answer. Have fun at school"

"You're not coming?"

"Nah, got midterms. I forgot I even have them. I've never forgotten about school before"

I complained while putting my boots on and grabbing my soft blue pea coat from the sofa I waved and left.

**No POV**

College campus was buzzing with students complaining to each other, the lightest of all snows was swaying in the air. Elijah was standing against a tree watching the people around him with a thoughtful expression.

He had just left the warm coffeehouse confused over the erratic behavior of his companion. Sheila Bennett was a witch, a teacher in this same college, a descendant of the witches that helped his mother turns them to vampires all those centuries ago but most of all; she was the witch in charge to make sure the curse upon his brother was lifted. She had called him seventeen years ago to inform that the latest doppelganger had been born and made sure to keep the child close to her for years. There was a problem when Shiela's daughter, Abby, had decided on not helping her mother and tried to kill Elena, the doppelganger one day when she was babysitting. Thankfully Elena's parents though stopped her before the girl was killed. Angry, Shiela killed her own daughter and told her granddaughter that Abby had skipped town and made sure to keep the little girl close to look after her.

Everything was great until a couple months ago. He was lounging at his house in Europe when Sheila called panicked. She had lost control of the powerful nexus when a newcomer witch killed one of her granddaughters, set the spirits of the trapped witches free and built a house on top of the nexus to claim it for the good side. He had told her to get the witch killed. Sheila told her other granddaughter to do it but the girl was useless. She only managed to get her powers lost and bound.

That was when he got involved himself. He tried to get close to the witch after a meeting with Sheila in mystic falls but the strong, pure good of her aura kept him away. So he did the next best thing. He got her friend in bed.

And that only made things worse.

He fell for Jenna Sommers. He planned on using her body, her blood and her connection to the doppelganger but he fell hard. He got addicted to Jenna, her affectionate smiles, her goodness, and he couldn't imagine hurting her now. Killing her adoptive niece, the doppelganger, would hurt her. With only one week before sacrifice day he grasped a new plan and she told it to Jenna too.

First of all he came clean to Jenna. She was shocked to find out that the bedtime stories she was told as a child are completely true but got over it quickly. She agreed to help him to keep Elena safe. He told Jenna to get close to her niece, close enough to get the girl to evade her cold one guard Klaus sent to keep her under control and then wisk her away when the time was right.

He had gone to town and compelled one of the local vampires to go out on a murder spree to see just how good the anti-vampire council was. The vampire (that had two-timed his sister back in the '20s according to Klaus) wasn't caught, killed or tortured so Elijah knew the council was worthless.

Strangely it made the whole 'protect the doppelganger' thing easier.

He only had one more thing to do. Ask help from the witch that beat the Bennet line. He really hoped her friendship with Jenna would stop Miss Swan from killing him.


	21. Babysitting and meeting Elijah

Chapter 20 – Babysitting the vampires and meeting yet another Original

**Bella POV**

Walking out of my classes I collided with the happy, glowing form of Jenna Somers.

"Hey"

She laughed and hugged me

"Hey! How are you?"

"Nervous, happy, mostly nervous"

"Why, what's up?"

She shook her head

"Long story. Are you free for coffee?"

"Yeah as long as I'm back in two hours for my next test"

"Great"

The caramel haired woman took my hand and together we went to a small corner coffee shop and slid in a booth. With a smile Jenna kissed the living daylights out of the guy already sitting in it.

"Bella, this is my boyfriend"

"Nice to meet you boyfriend"

I smiled to the guy in the dark coat. History of art teacher, boyfriend, vampire. As if he read my less than friendly thoughts he smiled and extended a hand

"Call me Elijah"

I propped my head on my hand and regarded him. He did the same. Jenna huffed

"I don't suppose you two are gonna let me in that little stare down"

"I'm the witch that messes the plans in Mystic"

"And I'm the vampire that wants to thwart them"

"After you created them"

Jenna finished helpfully.

"Whose side are you on?"

"Mine?"

I shook my head at them. When the waitress came Jenna ordered a latte, I ordered a very cold, very sweet chocolate drink with extra whipped cream and a dash of cinnamon and Elijah ordered a cup of black coffee. We were all quiet until the bleach blond waitress brought our drinks and a small bowl with various cookies.

"Thwart what plans exactly?"

I asked him. He took a breath and began talking. I was fascinated as he told me how he always planned on helping his brother but that had changed ever since he slept with Jenna. He couldn't hurt her. Is it possible there is something similar to imprinting for vampires too?

"How were you going to help your brother?"

"With the sacrifice"

"What sacrifice?"

He looked at me as if I had grown a second head

"You don't know?"

"I know about your father taking over the underworld, I know about your siblings being stabbed and stacked in a mausoleum in Chicago and I know about a prophesy tying me to all that. I have no idea about how all that ties with Jenna's niece, how the Bennet witches are involved and no idea about that sacrifice"

"My siblings are alive?"

"Ish. When I undaggered Rebekah she was fine though"

"Bekah's alive?"

"Yep"

"How"

"I undaggered her"

"You two are like a ping pong match"

Jenna mused with a sip of her coffee. I mimicked her with a smile.

"I thought Niklaus killed them all"

Elijah mused absentminded playing with the spoon that came with his coffee. Jenna took his hand lightly

"That's good right? That they're alive"

I nodded

"Rebekah seemed very angry with Klaus. She said she'd be assisting me against him"

"Did she tell you about the doppelganger too?"

"Nope"

I shook my head while Jenna flinched. Quietly Elijah told me about the curse his brother carried. Their mother had used the blood of a local girl that had a child out of wedlock to turn them and now the blood of her descendant, who was also a magical copy of her, was the key ingredient in the ritual that would lift said curse.

I sat back stunned.

"What kind of ritual though? I mean the spell. Do you have it?"

"No, Sheila does"

"Sheila Bennett?"

I raise an eyebrow

"Yes. Our bloodlines are tied together"

"Is that why her family has demon powers?"

"I think so. When my brother Henrik was killed, Mikael pushed Mother to turn the rest of us in a species stronger than the wolves. Ayanna Bennet said it was impossible and that it would be against nature. Then when my father promised her land she changed her tune and said she would assist Esther if her own bloodline got an upgrade as well"

I drank my chocolate thoughtfully mulling over what he said

"What do you want from me?"

I asked simply my eyes flickering over to Jenna who looked alarmed

"I can't let them hurt Elena"

Jenna whispered. I nodded.

"I dated her boyfriend. He'll get her away if I ask him to. Why don't you tell the council about it Jen?"

"They're useless"

Elijah interjected mentioning how he compelled to Stefan to eat half the village. I held in a snicker seeing the truth in his words. Last I checked all deaths caused by my new vampire-in-law were attuned to Meredith who had, very conveniently, committed suicide.

"Fair enough only this is Elena, your niece and the daughter of a council member. I really think her parents, if not all the council, has to know"

She pouted before agreeing talking to them. Then she squinted her eyes at me

"You're upset. You need to have sex, it's horribly relaxing"

Elijah turned redder than Jenna's tomato red blouse. I snickered

"I had six orgasms in an hour yesterday morning. If I have anymore sex, I won't be able to walk"

Elijah jumped up like jack-in-a-box.

"I'm outta here"

He threatened and Jenna laughed before standing up as well. We all paid and left the coffeehouse.

"Jen, tell your family in confidence. There are way too many ears in mystic and Elijah? I'll make you the same deal I made your sister. Cross me and you die, help me and I'll find a way to reward you"

I told them seriously before running to my next class and midterm. Who in their right minds puts five different ones in the same day?

Later that day I walked into the Salvatore boarding house with ease as if I were home. I had stopped to my house long enough to make sure all my protections were up and was happy to see they were. Damon was blurring in circles around the coffee table, Stefan was hanging from the chandelier like a monkey and Lexi with Rebekah were chasing both boys. There was also a flying scotch glass coming straight at me that I froze instinctively.

"Hey!"

Everyone stopped.

"What the hell is going on?"

Without a word Damon pointed to his now waxed eyebrows and blooded toenails.

"They cornered me"

He pointed childishly to the two blond vampires who looked like deer in the Emmett lights. I looked at Stefan hoping to get a more logical answer but he nodded emphatically fluttering his eyes making his long blue eyelashes appear miles long

"Maybe he was born with it, maybe it's Maybeline"

Rebekah commented and it was all I needed to start laughing. Damon blurred to me and picked me up to straddle his thighs in what had easily become our accustomed position.

"They're insane"

He pointed. I moved in to kiss him but something soft and gooey was on his cheek. I rubbed it off

"Are you wearing makeup? I refuse to kiss a guy that has more makeup on than I do"

I hopped down.

"Girls remove their makeup, NOW. Boys, grow up!"

With a shake of my head I plopped heavily on the sofa and tipped the amber liquid in the glass I had saved feeling it burn my throat

"I feel like a kindergarten teacher"


	22. Something strange

Chapter 21 – There is something strange

Later I was freshly showered and in the kitchen chopping mushrooms for Greek spaghetti with my mind flowing and traveling. Cooking is always the best time for me to relax and figure things out. I was cooking when I figured out that Edward was a vampire and I was cooking when I froze the burning tortigias finally accepting that I was a witch.

Today I realized that something was seriously wrong with the Salvatore's. Or rather with their house

Stefan, who while compelled by Elijah, had tried to compel me to forget he ate Mr. Tanner only two months ago, was now acting happy. Lexi who had stumbled over her own words when she asked me to make her a daylight jewel was now braiding Stefan's hair. Rebekah who less than 24 hours ago had attempted to kill me was assisting Lexi in giving makeovers to the boys and Damon hadn't left his house in days. When I first met him he was compelling girls to go to bed with him and emptying the entire scotch supply of the grill!

In fact, the last time either of the brothers acted normally was the day of the bachelor sale. The day I got married, I mused with my eyes traveling to my ring. Grabbing a pan I threw the pasta in, added the now bruised mushrooms and some cream and putting the pan in the oven I grabbed my Book and left the house ignoring the tremble of protest the Book gave as I crossed the threshold.

"'Kay Book. Protect yourself"

I told it and crossed the Salvatore yard quickly. Pushing open the unlocked I wasn't too shocked with the image that greeted me.

Damon and Jasper had military paint on their faces and were playing around with plastic water guns.

Rosalie, Lexi, Caroline and Rebekah were playing with each others hair, moaning over how soft or wavy it is. Edward and Stefan were messing on a sleek, black baby grand piano thinking they could play while Emmett was standing on top of it singing loudly show tunes.

I had to bite my tongue not to laugh at them feeling the general giddiness surrounding me. Doing my best to concentrate I whistled. Loudly.

Nine heads snapped quickly all commotion dying.

"Everyone outside, now"

I shouted in my best Charlie tone. Thankfully they complied, Caroline tripping on an abandoned baseball not he ground. Picking it up I smirked and followed the vampires to the cold night.

"Who wants to play baseball?"

No one answered

"It's the American pastime"

I used Edward's words against them but it didn't work

"I bet the girls can defeat the guys. Rose was amazing last time I saw her and Rebekah can run faster than Edward"

I prodded happy to see that my words were hitting the mark as Rosalie high fived Rebekah as Edward pursed his lips.

"There is a clearing at the falls"

Stefan pointed rubbing his hands together as if they were already playing. With a blink of an eye they were all blurring away, shoving and poking at each other.

"Now it's you and me"

I regarded the dark Salvatore boarding house closely. If I didn't know any better I'd expect a moat in the basement filled with human bones, ghosts and ravens fly around it. Scratch that, ravens are Damon's pets. I shook my head stopping the craziness from claiming me. I lit a white candle and with its flame I set fire to a small bunch of basil and rosemary

_"Demons hiding in this place_

_Be gone and leave no trace _

_Sewers of discord _

_Your works must cease _

_I vanquish thee now _

_With these words of peace"_

Expectantly a wind picked up and with it the air became lighter. The flame of my candle grew and extended warmth. Along the long driveway the lights flickered to life and the house seemed brighter as well. With a smile I closed the Book, walked up to the front door, traced the large double doors with the candle flame and the burning incense and castled the second spell of the night

_"Magic forces far and wide _

_Enchant these doors so those can't hide _

_Allow this house to be clean_

_And grand entrance only to those invited from within"_

the whole house shook on it foundation as my spell took change and I circled the house making the same motion with my candle and burning incense to the side door and the kitchen door. I finished the ritual by planting four small hex bags in the ground on the four corners of the house casting a lower level of protection around the property. With a look at my watch, I left a post it note on the door for the vampires to come find me and went home to have dinner.

Only to be stopped by a wild haired witch who was casting spell after spell at my house trying to gain entrance.

"Can I help you?"

I asked coldly. She turned around alarmed but did nothing but glare at me when our eyes met.

"What do you think you're doing?"

She spat

"Having midterms, destroying your spells, going to have dinner. The usual for a fall day. And you?"

I replied condescend. Her nostrils flared in anger.

"All has been spoken before your birth. You have no right to upset it"

"Did you ever stop to think that if you were right, everything would fall into place with no sweat? Your coven is now powerless"

I ignored her highly and mighty words with the reality. She didn't seem to like it very much

"You don't belong here"

She spat

"What are you gonna do about that?"

I provoked her. Her eyes gleamed zoning on my Book of Shadows turning completely black as a large ball of blackness appeared between her hands. My body stilled as an energy ball appeared in my right hand, the Book tucked safely under my left arm.

"I'm going to kill you"

She said simply and thrust the ball at me. I sent her my own energy ball but it was engulfed within the black ball that simply grew bigger. The old witch laughed coldly and maniacally. I tried freezing and exploding the ball but it only grew even bigger in size. Now it had almost the same size as me. I was panicking when a spell came to my mind.

_"I am light _

_I am one too strong to fight _

_Return to Dark where Shadows Dwell _

_You cannot have this witch as well. _

_Go away and leave my sight _

_And take this with this endless light."_

I finished chanting just as the ball hit me. I felt like I was immerged in goo and watched as it wrapped around me like liquid wetsuit. The witched eyes widened and she was set on fire. She was gone in seconds and the dark goo turned to bight white and seeped inside me.

I gasped feeling this extra power. I felt strong yet meek, powerful yet little. I shook my head and sat on the porch steps for a moment.

"Paige"

I called softly and the redhead white lighter appeared almost immediately.

"Are you okay Bella?"

"I don't know. I feel sluggish like trying to swim in warm milk"

I told her what had transpired and asked her what Leo had done with the bottled powers I had given him so long ago.

"He said they were flecks of powers. Like there was a family well and the witches you bound only borrowed them."

Her hands traveled over me with a cold white light shining onto me

"You just got yourself the family well. Did you kill her?"

"Yeah"

"Are you going to be alright?"

She asked softly sitting next to me.

"I killed someone. If I got the 'family well' the there's no more witches in their line"

I whispered and let Paige hug me whispering nonsense in my ear.

"Are you going to be alright?"

She asked again. This time I nodded

"Yeah. Thanks for coming"

"If I didn't I'm pretty sure the jiggling in my head would force me to"

She laughed. With a nod and a smile she was gone and I headed inside to turn of the oven and make myself a big mug of an herbal tea.

I was writing my entry of the battle with the Bennett witch and the spells I used to the Book of Shadows in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. Opening it I was faced with a few very tired and awkward looking vampires.

"Feel any different?"

I asked them standing just inside my door. They all nodded frowning. Rosalie was slumped in Emmett's arms and Caroline was biting her lip nervously hiding herself in Jasper's side. Lexi was nervous and clutched on Stefan's hand for dear life.

"What happened to us?"

Rebekah asked loudly her hand rubbing soothing circles on her torso, where the dagger was impaled in her. I took a breath

"There were a few curses in the house affecting everyone in it. I took care of it. It's clean now but..."

"But?"

Damon's eyes gleamed. I bit my lip

"I restored an entrance spell. No one can enter uninvited except the owners"

"As if a human owns it?"

Stefan asked frowning. I nodded suddenly thinking I was overdoing it. Stefan smirked

"That's a good idea actually. Do you mind if I don't invite you inside brother?"

He teased Damon who glared under his green pasted face

"Only if you don't mind finding your underwear at the pole at school"

Damon joked back and I snickered relieved. Telling them to wait a moment I took another big mug and placed a few herbs inside it and poured the hot water.

"You should all take a sip from this"

"What will it do?"

Lexi sniffed the sweet tea

"Take away all ... the baggage the blood inside you may have"

Rosalie lifted an eyebrow

"I don't think someone would have spelled the animals and people in the town"

"Dr Fell got hold of vampire blood somehow and the hexes in the house were strong. They weren't put on overnight"

I shrugged a shoulder. Jasper took one for the team and taking the warm mug from my hands he took a sip and almost turned green before forcing it down

"This is horrible"

He commented before passing the mug to Caroline. She liked tea as a human so she sipped it with a smile. The mug traveled from vampire to vampire before returning to me. All the cold ones were flushed as they choked it down and the others wanted alcohol. I rolled my eyes and guided them to claim the house and invite the others in.

"Can we talk?"

Damon asked quietly. I nodded

"Sure"


	23. Wicked, wicked, wicked

Chapter 23 – Wicked wicked wicked

I stretched as far as I could without falling off my bed. I blinked sleepily pushing my tangled mess of hair out of my face and neck to see that I was laying diagonally on my king sized bed. It's amazing how much roomier my small room is once you kick the desk and bookshelf out of it! And alone!

I frowned and sat up straight. My vision swarmed and I had to close my eyes, breath deeply in and out in an attempt to focus all the magic that flew around and inside me to a respectable and tamable mess bubbling under my fingertips so the room would stop spinning. Standing up I pulled a simple green cotton dress on and went in search of my missing husband.

I found him in the kitchen and watched him for a moment as he stood there the muscles beneath his shirt rippling visibly as he shook the pan and whatever thing he was cooking. With a coy smile I slid up behind him and standing on my toes I wrapped my arms around him.

"You can cook?"

"Who do you think cooked for Stefan when we were kids?"

"Tall, dark, handsome and can cook. My life is complete"

I half joked choosing to overlook the rhetorical question about his childhood. I had learned a bit ago that he wasn't comfortable talking about their human years. We began to sway gently and the gentle movement somewhat was soothing.

"It is. You should remember it"

"Touché."

I whispered and pecked his neck slightly.

"I loved cheese omelettes"

He said softly and I tightened my arms around his waist inquiring softly

"Do you miss it?"

"No, not anymore"

He whispered and I smiled at his neck. Lifting us in the air he moved us to the table and he sat down with me in his lap.

"I never thanked you, did I?"

He asked and I smiled

"You didn't need to. You have your brother back. That's all the thanks I need"

With the tips of his ears turning slightly pink he nodded and changed the subject.

"When did you become so invincible?"

"A couple days ago"

"Makes me wonder..."

He trailed with his trademark smirk. I felt my body respond

"Yes?"

"Does it replenish your blood and stamina too?"

He waggled his eyebrows suggestically. I smirked and moved to straddle him

"I guess we have to find that out"

we didn't eat for a long time

A few hours later we were at the Grill where Damon was attempting to teach me how to play pool. Key word being 'attempting' because for some reason my white ball kept jumping off our pool table and hitting balls on the nearby tables. I would laugh, blush and apologize each time much to everyone else's amusement.

"Why don't you two play and us girls will be on the bar"

Lexi proposed when my ball jumped two tables away and won a game for someone else. Stefan and Damon had began laughing while Lexi was amazed

"How did you do that?"

I shrugged laughing

"I stopped questioning it"

Leaving the boys to play we sat at the bar and flagged down matt's sister to order drinks and gossip when I felt the hair at the back of my neck rise just as the dark haired, slightly whorish teenage girl brought us our martinis. Standing taller I glanced around me but all I could see was the usual mob of students by the pool tables or a few girls pretending to do their homework while ogling various guys or the usual patrons and Alaric by the bar along with a stack of papers to grade. Nothing out of the ordinary but I still felt as if someone was slipping ice cubes down my back.

"What's wrong?"

I faintly heard Lexi ask as I called my magic forward and opening my third eye I scanned the crowd again. This time I noticed the door of the establishment slip closed but no one had exited. I hopped off my stool and not even bothering to put my jacket back on I exited the Grill ignoring lexis's protests. For once the street outside tee grill was empty save for a vampire.

"Hello Alice"

She regarded me with crazy red eyes and no smile or the bubbly personality I have missed.

"You will join us"

She declared sure of herself.

"No, I won't"

"I've seen it"

She insisted, stomping her foot on the ground. I raised an eyebrow

"Does your Master know you fake your visions? We both know I would never buy all the crap you 'saw' me buying Alice"

She blinked flustered

"How do you know about him?"

"I wonder what would happen if I told him"

I put one finger on my chin comically letting the long ivory nail gently scrap my lower lip watching Alice's eyes go blank as she searched for possible futures if I did infect choose to go to the Source completely disregarding the fact that she could never see my own choices.

"You won't"

She snarled and threw a vial of bright orange potion at my feet. I watched it fall wondering what she thought it'd do. It did nothing and I allowed myself a sarcastic moment

"Echo?"

I faked a sneeze. She looked surprised. Her attention was shifted to something behind me and she smirked

"Plan B"

Ducking down I watched Carlisle throw a lime green potion at me just as Alice threw a poop brown. I jumped out of the way and pulling a Paige threw the mixed concoctions back at them. With a scream they exploded in colorful lights reminding me oddly of fireworks.

Only then I noticed a crowd around us as I bent to pick a tiny part of the mixed potions.

"So much for keeping witchcraft a secret"

But would it really end there? Of course not

A fiery red bolt thing like lightning hit the 'fireworks'

"Or C or D. There's a plan for every occasion"

A curly haired Elena announced before hitting me with a much higher voltage. I screamed and was tossed back to the wall. I healed the moment she stopped but hell that hurts!

"Katherine I assume"

I panted throwing her a mental attack. She fell to her knees giving me time to stand up and blow her up in a million dust particles. I ran to her dusty remains to make sure she was actually gone.

"What happened?"

A disheveled Damon asked from behind me. The crowd had luckily moved on. I sighed

"I just killed your ex"

Damon and Stefan looked shocked. Lexi snorted quietly

"That's one way to get rid of the competition"

The throne room was empty except for one lean figure observing the big cauldron. A caramel haired woman watched the demise of her three rivals.

She knew playing it stupid and ignorant would land her in the top position of the Source's right hand. For now.

As they say, it's the right hand that kills.


	24. Attacks

Chapter 24 - Attacks

**Bella POV**

It was under total silence that all four of us walked home. Stefan was quiet, Damon was completely closed down, Lexi was fidgeting and I was nervous. Arriving at the Salvatore boarding house I was half ready to bolt to my own but Lexi had a deathrgip on my hand.

"You're not leaving me alone with them"

She announced and dragged me inside the house. Damon opened yet another bottle of scotch and wordlessly poured Stefan a glass. Lexi threw me a glance and grabbed a large pitcher of a lime green liquid and poured us both a tall glass.

So we sat there, all four of us drinking our respective drinks in total silence with nothing but the crackle of fire serving as background noise...

**No POV**

Bella looked around her. The entrance of the boarding house was littered with body parts. She herself had scratches all over her face with blood tripping from them.

A heavily cloaked figure flamed in and walked slowly over to her. He was in his early fifties and could be viewed as handsome if he hadn't a murderous look on him

"Mikael I presume?"

She asked cockily. The Source tilted his head to the side

"Will you join me and be my Queen?"

"In your dreams"

She snarled. The source let a wry laugh

"As you wish. Any last words?"

"Screw you"

She replied as a ball of fire appeared in his right hand. He throws it at her but she responded with one of her own. The two fireballs wore each other out and the man glared at her as she blew him up.

He got back together immediately. With a sudden hand move the body parts shifted around revealing 5 large site crystals forming an energy cell around the original man.

"Say hi to the original source for me"

She told him as he threw a fire ball that went through the electric bolts, vanquishing her.

**Bella POV**

I woke up with a start feeling the heat in my chest and looked around me to make sure it was a dream and took a minute to recognize where I was. I was in a spare room at the Salvatore boarding house sharing a bed with Lexi.

Extracting myself from her I walked to the bathroom across the hall and splashed some cold water on my face. That dream felt so real! My premonitions always pan out but usually I can change them. Usually.

Taking a deep breath I took the bright red lipstick that was there in my hand and wrote a note on the mirror

"Gone home. Bella"

Taking my boots in one hand I snuck out of the house and ran to mine. Immediately I put them on and sat down to write the entire dream down detailed. It featured the Salvatore boarding house, change number one, a clutter of human remains, change number two, and my death, change number three.

Why do I have the sinking feeling I'm going to die today?

**Swan Residence ~ 11is**

Bella swan was nursing a cup of coffee sitting Indian style on the sofa in her red and black living room. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach and in a desperate try to change the outcome of the vision she had gotten earlier that morning she had shut her phone and made sure she was unavailable and made zero plans to leave her house.

Her quiet musings were interrupted when a person appeared in front of her. With a glare the person threw an electric bolt at Bella who was thrown backwards against a mirror. It smashes and she falls to the floor on her knees. With a groan she raised her arms and tried to blow him up and failed horribly.

"Thank you"

The demon smirked and thanked her before throwing his hands in the air, blowing up the remaining mirror frame which came in large debris around Bella's head. Pissed off she glared and grabbing a large piece of mirror glass and threw it at the demon. It got stuck in his neck and vanquished him.

A swarm of black bee-like creatures fly away

With a tired breath the young witch passed out blood oozing out from the large pieces or mirror stuck in her back. It wasn't until sometime later that her healing ability pushed them off mending her body and she gasped waking up.

"What did just happen?"

She questioned aloud watching the stumbles that used to be her living room. She stood shakily to her knees and reached for the water bottle on the coffee table. Her trembling hands knocked it off the table and she watched it roll on the floor for a moment before freezing it.

Or tried to. She had lost Piper's powers.

"What the...?"

**Source's throne room. ~ 12am**

The Source, or Michael as only six people in the world dare to call him by, was sitting on the large throne in the middle of the room. Aiming at the pot his Seer and wife was using to stir herbs he used the newly acquired powers and blew it up proceeding to freeze the shattered pieces in mid-air.

"These powers are impressive"

Esther, his wife and personal seer, scowled over the loss of her potion.

"Couldn't you have picked one of the empty ones?"

She calmed her tone immediately at her husband's scowl immediately going to his side.

"Nevertheless, do you think it's wise to have extracted them from the Hollow? There could be repercussions, Michael"

She tried to softly reason with him. She was evil too but obtaining the Hollow was dangerous.

"Damn the repercussions! I won't stop until I have all her powers coursing through my veins. You understand me? I can't risk going against our children, until I do."

He unfroze the pot and the pieces clattered to the dirty ground beneath their feet.

"No one wins while the Hollow runs free"

Esther said softly opting to ignore his line about their children. She had plans of her own far worse than her husband's.

"I control the Hollow"

Michael's accent deepened.

"For now. But the more magic it absorbs the stronger it becomes. And the more you extract from it, the more it corrupts you until it consumes all things including you."

"Unless you wanna face eternity as a pile of ash, I suggest you stop questioning me and do as I say!"

Esther bowed her head before delivering her final line in a soft tone.

"I don't want to lose you"

The Source closed his eyes for a moment against the image the words had reminded him. He and Esther had lost their youngest son millennia ago in another life. It was that death that birthed everything when Esther turned her back on white magic and began practicing dark magic.

"You won't"

He replied equally softly. They both knew the tenderness in his voice was for the ghost of the little boy that lived in their hearts. With a calculating move the Source summoned a Darklighter. Who knelt down the moment he was summoned.

"How can I be of service Master?"

"I want Isabella Swan, Darklighter"

"But my arrows don't kill witches"

The dark lighter replied confused. The smirk on the source's face broadened as he picked the enchanted Hollow box.

"The best way to attack a witch is through her friends. I want you to hurt them one by one. She will be forced to sacrifice her powers to defeat you"

The Darklighter's eyes widened at the realization of his suicide mission. He accepted though, it wasn't like he had a choice, and let the vapor fly into him through his eye sockets.


	25. Choices

Chapter 25 - Choices

**No POV**

**Swan residence ~ 12am**

Bella swan was ashen as she stood in front of the Book of shadows. She had finally recognized what the bee-like creatures were and the information on them had felt like a cold heart squeezing her heart. On the right side of the Book was a blank paper and with ice flowing through her veins she picked up a pen and began writing

_'Mom, Dad, _

_I'm sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am. Mom, do you remember the nifty little prophesy the Elders gave me? Join the Source or defeat him? The time has come and I'm not entirely sure I can survive it. I'd tell you to not worry because Good always defeats Evil but I've grown up since I read fairytales. It's what I was born to do. Don't be mad at me or each other for not bringing you into this. I don't want you two to get hurt because of me. My own life is the only thing that has to be sacrificed. _

_I love you both and I will always will. _

_Bella'_

A tear fell on the envelope and sealed it closed. Walking slowly she slid the envelope under the magical door for her parents to find.

Then she rubbed her cold hand over her face and put her game face on.

"It's time to go to war"

**Swan residence ~ 1pm**

Bella was on her knees on the floor in the middle of the attic. All furniture was pushed to the sides and she was placing five large crystals on the floor uncaring for the dust clinging on her jeans.

"Five magic crystals oriented east to west. Magic circle, check"

She spoke aloud needing to hear her own voice. For the first time in her life there was no music to the soundtrack of her life. Then she stood up, stirred the large cauldron on the table watching the white liquid turning purple.

"Makeshift Piper's powers, Check"

Why lose all her acquired powers when she could motionless the ones she already lost?

"Source vanquishing spell, check."

She checked the last thing on her imaginary list. Acknowledge the very real possibility that this source was stronger than the last ones the charmed ones defeated she had modified the spells used then with her blood. She would use her all, including her life, and would win. She had to.

The phone rings making her jump.

"So much for being confident"

She mocked herself and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hi Bella"

"Hey, Emmett"

A smile built on her face at his rumbling.

"Are you busy? I'm having a WII marathon. Wanna play?"

"I can't"

She bit her lip

"I'm cleaning house"

"Cleaning house?"

Emmett's voice was suddenly alert with no trace of playfulness left. Bella kicked herself

"The house. I'm cleaning the house. It's a mess over here"

She saved it with fake cheerfulness.

"Oh okay"

Emmett sounded sad and Bella felt guilt creep inside her for the rightful she had over using him. Well he could be mad at her later; he'd be alive to do so

"Why don't you get the others there and see which supernatural is best? I'll be over as soon as I'm done too"

If Emmett registered anything in her tone, he didn't let it show. Instead he agreed

"That's a great idea"

Soon he hung up. Bella sighed and sat on the windowsill watching the hordes of vampires gather at the Salvatore house for the wii marathon.

The vision was coming true. A black cloaked figure smoked in the Salvatore yard and pointed his arrow at Stefan. Mid-yawn Bella was instantly alert and watched as if in slow motion the arrow fly straight to Stefan. With no remorse she pointed a finger at it and turned it around to hit, kill and set on flames the Dark lighter.

She had consciously given up on Prune's telekinesis.

**Source's throne room ~ 6 pm**

It had taken five hours and the lives of countless demons but it was worth it. The source had acquired all of Isabella's powers.

"You were right. Her friends are her biggest weakness"

He said. The caramel haired woman sat by his feet smirking.

"I had a lot of time to find her weaknesses Master"

The woman replied humbly. Michael looked at her.

"But I don't need you anymore"

In his right palm a large ball of energy was dancing and he threw it straight to her chest. Esme Cullen was smiling serenely as she was sent to reunite with her husband. In the drawer of Bella's house, the two letters were turned to ash at the death of their sender.

"Time to get my new bride"

The source announced before hitting his wife with the potion she had prepared earlier. Esther wanted to turn their children, the original vampires, to humans. That was unacceptable.

He wanted to torture and slowly kills them.

**Swan residence in Forks, Way ~ 5pm**

Sheriff Charlie swan was balancing three shopping bags in one arm precariously as he unlocked the door and dashed to the kitchen to relieve them before he dropped everything. His boots left behind snow water as he tripped landing on a heap on the floor all the bags landing on him in a cartoonist way.

"Of all the days"

He muttered watching the mess that used to be chocolate cake balance on a bottle of wine before it slipped and broke the wine. Shrugging out of his thick, winter, uniform jacket he reached to see what had tripped him. His heart stopped as he read the words in the letter under the magic door.

"RENNEE"

His loud voice brought a smile on Renee's face on the bathroom mirror. Fastening the robes belt tighter around him the brunette woman skipped to the stairs to see her man.

"Bella is dead"

Charlie said in a broken voice. Renee's smile died on her lips and the pregnancy test on her hand slipped off her fingers. At the dead silence of the small house the only thing that moved was the positive sign blinking on the test tube.


	26. Reppercusions

Chapter 26 - Repercussions

**Swan residence ~ 7pm**

The house started to shake and the Source flamed in. Bella gasped.

"Oh my god"

She whispered. Due to his vampire senses the source heard her

"Not quite"

He mocked.

"Join me"

"no"

"Then prepare to die"

"Why would I do that when I'm winning?"

She winked at him and disappeared just as the fireball coursed through her letting the Source take the last of her acquired powers.

"witches!"

Mikael spat and flamed out of the living room. Bella's eyes opened as she appeared back holding one of the crystals in her hand.

**Swan residence in Forks ~ 7pm**

Renée was hiding in Charlie's arms, her hot tears mixing with his and drying on the lapels of his coat. The two had been huddled on the floor for over two hours crying over their daughter's life.

"Wouldn't we feel it if she was truly gone?"

Charlie asked licking his parched lips. Renée shook her head and with it the fog that had taken residency in it with the news.

"Yes! yes we would"

The two enchanted a look as Charlie began hitting the locked magic door with his shoulder willing it to open.

**Salvatore House ~ 7 pm**

The never-ending marathon of wii was grading on Damon's nerves. the excited squeals of .supernatual being of mystic falls sitting in his living room drinking his scotch weren't helping much either.

He had been quiet and withdrawn last night after watching the woman he had been obsessed with for a century die but the shock had dissolved into peace and he was celebrating now.

Or he would if he could find Bella today. She had left the house while everyone slept and Stefan's advice was to let her breath alone for a day. So he did but there was a pain in his chest that stopped him from cranking the music and dancing on the railing as he normally would.

"Fire?"

Rebekah's voice stilled all movement in the boarding house. All eyes were trained to the house that shared a backyard, Bella's house, and the thick black smoke inside it.

Not even the word 'hunter' would have propelled the undead crowd to the street so fast with one destination in mind.

Bella

**Swan residence ~ 7pm**

The Source flames in the living room and walked slowly to her. She stood calmly feeling light with the loss of all her powers save for her original one.

"Any last words?"

"Say 'hi' to the original source for me"

Bella echoed the words from her vision and let the crystal drop on the floor. The cage was now in place with five electricity bolts surrounding the original vampire that angry with the world had turned into a demon.

With an evil smile Mikael opened his right palm and one of the crystals flew to the open palm and the trap disappeared.

"Now the moment I've been waiting for"

He threw a fireball but before it could hit Bella she smiled

_'Datum ad a necral _

_daya intay layok."_

She chanted. The house shook violently as the powerful nexus broke through the basement and traveled through the floor and the floorboards and entered Bella's body through the pores in her body.

"What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?"

She asked rhetorically icy blue swirls replacing the white and brown of her eyes. Mikael gulped slightly recognizing the only thing stronger than the Hollow.

Between Bella's palms a sizable ball of nexus energy expanded and she threw it at the source knowing the Hollow couldn't and wouldn't absolve it.

Right then the front door, the kitchen door and the magic door were kicked in. all newcomers were bathed in the black and icy blue Hollow and Nexus particles danced in the air. Everyone screeched at the deadly combination save for Bella and Mikael in the middle of the room locked in a gaze war.

Renee recognized the two energies and grabbed the book from the ground.

"I need an evil being"

she called out. 'Evil' being the middle name for him, Klaus blurred next to the woman.

"Present"

"Read this with me"

She instructed him after summoning the enchanted box from the Book's pages.

_'Iam is Addo,_

_Hic Is Addo_

_Malum Quod Bonus,_

_Vox In Consesses,_

_Super Dico Nos'_

The two chanted together and the Hollow was forced to leave its vampire host behind and got locked in the box. Powerless Mikael dropped on the floor his eyes watching his children stand against them.

Bella extended her left palm and a trail of Nexus traveled through the air and wrapped itself around Phil's unique, white oak, baseball bat by the front door and the Gilbert Resurrection ring on Jeremy's finger bring both items to Bella.

"This is for Phil"

The witch announced in a cold tone using the combined items and magic to drive the makeshift stake through Mikael's chest. The vampire screamed as he was engulfed in flames until there was nothing left but ashes.

Rebekah, Klaus and Elijah felt a sense of peace that was cut short as Renée castled another spell this time aiming at her daughter.

"She is light. She is one too strong to fight.

Return to dark where shadows dwell.

You must protect this abode well."

"What do you think you're doing?"

Bella's icy eyes locked on Renée. The older woman faltered unable to hurt her daughter. Rebekah bit her lip and blurred to Renée taking her hand and the two chanted together.

"Go away and leave this child

And take with you this endless night."

The icy blue particles were forced to leave Bella and got themselves locked in the underground once again protecting the house. Bella collapsed in Damon's arms that dove to catch her.

"You're a witch?"

Renée asked Rebekah who shook her head

"Not anymore. My magic died when our mother turned us"

"Thank you"

With tears flowing down her cheeks Renée hugged the original vampire tightly. A large white orb appeared in the room and transformed to a woman. She assessed the broken windows, cracked walls, unconscious witch, the Box and the stench of dead Mikael

"Could be worse"


	27. Dealing with it

Chapter 27 – Dealing with it

"Can you all shut up and someone explain what happened to Bella? And you, Mr. Vainy, give me my daughter back"

Charlie called loudly, more than a little annoyed with Damon. He recognized him as the same man drowning his sorrows a few nights ago in the Grill when he had gone to visit Bella. The one who got married, decided to have an affair with his wife while they waited to file for annulment, fought and he regretted ever meeting her. Yep, he did not want someone like that not only touching, but near his only daughter.

As Charlie reached to take his daughter in his own arms, Damon snarled, the bags under his eyes getting thick with veins and a set of fangs descended over his teeth and grabbed the prone girl holding her close wrapped in his arms tightly.

"Chief, don't. He's too upset and not thinking clearly"

Jasper grabbed Charlie by the arm holding him back and away from the crouching vampire.

"Neither. Do. I"

Charlie shouted again pulling his arm back made another move to get a hold of his daughter. This time it was Renee who pulled him back quickly crossing to him

"Charlie, she's okay. And it's never a good idea to drag a mate away from her vampire"

She rolled her eyes at the surprised expressions all the vampires in the room gave her.

"I'm a witch guys. Do you really think you're the first vampires I've met?"

The woman in the white robes wondered why she never bothered to bring popcorn to these meetings. She shook her head silently thinking if she should add some 'flare' to her entrance thinking it just may give her the recognition she deserved! Choosing to ruin her respectable, and vastly ignored, posture she whistled loudly!

Every single petty argument ceased and all eyes were...

On the man standing next to her. The tall, slightly dark skinned man, in the dark red shirt was smirking slightly.

"Hi"

He said. Everyone besides Renee was baffled as to whom he was and Jasper began sending out strong waves of calm around hoping it would calm Damon enough. Not even sparing him a glance the red shirted man stole all attention of the Angel by kneeling next to Damon and Bella who was squeezing her eyes tightly having woken a few moments before.

"Hey, nice atmosphere in here. You should air the place a bit"

He said softly. Bella gave a strange sound between a groan and a moan, squeezing her eyes even tighter, hiding her face in Damon's chest making the vampire growl at the man fighting his hold on her.

"You, cut it out with the calmness, she needs to feel this"

"What do you know?"

Stefan asked in a protective tone.

"I've been a lawyer and a demon, helped vanquish the Source and became the Source, an Avatar and back to a lawyer. Do you want her to become the first ever female witch-turned-source? She needs to work it out NOW"

Stefan looked down chastised and almost missed the 'moron' the former Source added.

"Cole?"

Bella whispered attempting to open her eyes slightly. The man smiled

"Yeah, a little Elder told us of your victory. Felt you might need some help now"

"It would be appreciated"

She whispered with a less than guilty smirk before groaning again.

"Do you trust him Bella?"

Charlie asked his daughter, feeling once again his blood pressure jump to unconceivable heights waiting of her answer. Everyone in the ruined room stood completely quiet waiting for her answer.

Jeremy's stomach growled loudly at the silent room the same moment Bella opened her mouth to reply.

"Seriously?"

Rebekah inquired. Jeremy blushed uncomfortable

"I skipped a few meals today"

Rosalie smelled the air unconsciously

"But you managed to have sex about five times"

"And skipped on showers too mate"

Klaus finished her thought feeling relaxed now that his father was dead. Jeremy blushed harder

"SHUT UP"

Bella shouted deeply her eyes opening wide as the unworldly, deep voice emerged from her throat. Gone her deep brown eyes and in their place were two flames dancing in red hot.

"dam nit"

Cole swore.

"Everyone shut up, sit down and keeps fucking quiet"

He snapped. Everyone complied by plopping on the ground where they stood as if they'd been Original-compelled. Cole himself sat Indian style on the floor next to Bella who was now sweating; clamping her eyes shut again, fighting to take control of her body.

"What do you see when you try to open your eyes?"

Cole asked softly.

"What don't I see is a better question?"

Bella replied growling slightly. Cole snickered. Bella pursed her lips annoyed

"You've read my entry in the book. What does it say about me after helping the source?"

"That the residual energy turned you to the new source"

"Do you want that for yourself?"

"No"

"Then listen to me and do what I say, 'k?"

"'k"

Bella whispered.

The truth was that since the Hollow had vacated Mikael, the Source, and she killed him she had felt a collection of powers slam her. She had instantly become power hungry feeling the need to consume and control more and more powers. All of them dark, demon powers. The empty seat of the Source beckoned to her like a lover. It was only the Nexus that was forced to leave her body that stopped her from turning Evil at that same moment.

It was only the strings tugging at her heart right now that acted as a makeshift cage for the darkness inside her. The strings of love for her parents and friends surrounding her. The word 'mate' and the missing rebuttal of it hadn't escaped her either.

so taking a breath she did her best to focus on Cole's voice letting Damon's unique scent fill her nostrils and help her tame the beastly darkness.

"I want to you imagine a tall cake"

Cole instructed. Bella's left eyebrow rose in question but she did focus on visualizing the yummy cake. In her mind's eye it was tall, dripping with chocolate syrup and eaten in bed with...

"Stop drooling and focus"

Cole snapped. Blushing for all was worth, Bella focused back on his voice and the cake

"I want you to add seven layers to this cake, each sloppily put so that it merges with he one above and below it"

"Like a rainbow cake?"

Cole felt a smile tug on his lips. Trust Bella to think of various cakes at this moment

"Yep"

"Okay"

In her mind's eye the chocolate cake morphed to a colored one. Each layer had a different color, all bright and all merging together

"Now, I want you to add attributes to each layer. The first one has humans, plants and animals. No witches, no vampires, no werewolves, no fairies. Nothing supernatural"

The first layer became red in her mind. She placed pictures of her friends, Jenna & Angela and her father's picture there.

"The one above it has animals only"

the second layer became orange with a picture of the Hallowell's cat, Kit the Cat, on it.

"The third one has vampires"

The next layer was a sunny yellow. An image of Edward was placed there along with Damon's.

"The next one has werewolves"

The green layer was compiled by images of the La Push pack along with one of Mason Lockwood.

"The fifth one has witches and warlocks"

Bella's breath hitched as she saw her mother, the Hallowell's and even Cole being placed like play mobiles on the light blue layer. Renée smirked to herself realizing the importance of the cake coke was presenting. It was a somewhat graphic representation of the seven planes. She had only access to the first five, like all witches.

"The next level is filled with demons"

A clutter of faces she had seen and vanquished took a hold go the deep blue sixth level.

"The last one belongs to the Elders and the Source"

Cole finished. His voice had been getting more and more serious as the level accented. In Bella's mental cake resided Mikael and Leo.

"Do you see it?"

"Yes"

Her voice was slightly more assured but the fire kept burning beneath her closed lids

"I want you to add magic to this cake Bella. Can you do that?"

"Yes"

"I want you to go to the third and fourth levels and add ways to stop the vampires and the werewolves"

On the yellow layer Bella imagined an invitation and a tiny sun taking place. A tall tree with beautiful light purple flowers also known as the white oak and overlain was planted in the middle. The two layers touched more as the green beings could harm the yellow ones and vice versa as vampires could harm the shape shifters and moon aided traditional vampires while it caused the werewolves to phase.

"On the fifth and sixth levels I want you to add the nexus and the hollow"

Cole's voice instructed. Bella did so and the light blue and darker blue layers got more distinguished.

"I want you to open your eyes and see the seventh layer Bella"

Cole ordered. Bella's eyes popped open on their own accord. Her house was wrapper in vivid amethyst colored netting like a Matrix scene. When her eyes looked up she was met with the startled expressions of the Elders in their robes 'up there' and when she looked downwards she could see into the empty throne room of the source. Around her friends and family all bore a different color like they were made out of play doe the red, yellow, all unique with one of the green men having a splash of yellow in it, while her light blue mother was dotted with spots of red on her stomach. Cole in front of her was the most unique bathed with purple, dark blue and the purest white on one side was the other one was as red as her father.

Her breath quickened and a single drop of blood fell from her nose traveling all the way to her lips. For once no vampire was moved by the delectable scent.

"I want you now to cover the cake, close it and exhale. With that breath you will be able to only see the first layer"

Cole instructed clearly and as Bella followed his instructions all colors fled her vision letting her see nothing but the human appearances of the room's inhabitants.

A last swarm of black yet transparent orbs flew from her and straight to the box through the keyhole as the Hollow consumed them and then sent them to the Wasteland to be recycled.

Having gotten rid of the Source's powers, Bella's eyes were her own again, the fire was gone. The young witch stood straighter, planted a kiss on Damon's lips and wordlessly she hid in her parents arms seeing no issue with the solace they provided her.

"Congratulations"

The woman in the corner announced and stood up pleased with having the attention to her.

"You completed your birth prophesy Miss Swan"

The woman went on. Bella used her parents as crunches and stood up herself faltering slightly when her bruised and hurt body held her back.

"Who are you?"

She asked.

"I am the Angel of Destiny, child"

"Wasn't an older, slightly scruffy man being the Angel of Destiny?"

She inquired further remembering the man that had offered the Hallowell's their mortal lives back after they vanquished the source a few years back

"He retired"

The dark skinned Angel smiled. Bella blushed a bit and nodded

"By fulfilling this prophesy you may retire child. Be a human among you're... less than human... crowd"

She offered. Bella didn't been thought about it, shaking her head

"No thank you. I quite happy"

"Are you certain?"

"One hundred percent"

Everyone smiled at her assurance even thought they felt like watching a movie. The Angel smiled as well and nodded. Extending her left palm a large scroll was materialized there and was handed to Bella.

"A token of appreciation"

The angel said and Bella barely resisted the urge to unfold it. The Angel took the box with the Hollow in her hands.

"The last time this box was opened it killed many demons and consumed many powers before it was closed again. Normally it is guarded and kept outside of the realm of time and space. I will be taking it back"

Bella nodded but Cole interrupted

"It is also supposed to be guarder and I know the seer didn't order new guards for it"

The Angel nodded solemnly.

"You are right. It seems like there is no third lever demon left these days though"

Bella blushed and looked down knowing she had been a bit of trigger-happy upon coming to her powers.

"Why do you need a demon?"

Charlie asked from his perch on the ground.

"The guards of the Hollow are an angel and a demon"

Cole replied. A sudden blur startled everyone as Klaus had moved next to the Angel in her deep purple and white robes

"I want to be it"

"No Nik"

Rebekah and Elijah countered his claim. The dark blond vampire smiled slightly.

"When mother died so did her spells. Elena is dead because the doppelganger spell was held within Mother. I cannot break my curse nor do I want to anymore. I owe it to you"

He looked at Bella

"And this is my way of repaying"


	28. New beginnings

Chapter 28 – New beginnings

**Five Years Later**

The Mystic Park was full of life. It had been built four years ago and was as big as a city block. It had many flowers including bushes of vervain among the roses and poinsettias and white oak trees were standing proudly next to more conservative apple trees. In the middle was a white wooden gazebo with benches and beautiful colorful lights were wrapped around the railings. Children of all ages were playing tag and cops and robbers while their parents watching amused or talking among themselves.

"I can't believe it's been five years"

Elijah breathed sitting on one of the benches next to his sister. Rebekah smiled before biting her lip, a habit she had picked up from spending too much time with Bella.

"Do you think he will like the changes?"

She asked her big brother.

Klaus had been taken by the Angel of Destiny for a five year long duty to guard the Hollow along with a whitelighter with no communication to the outside world. It had been a rough sentence, but Klaus had admitted he deserved it. Meanwhile Rebekah and Elijah had undaggered their remaining siblings and made peace with them. Finn, who quite enjoyed modern life, had teamed with Elijah and the two ran a business together while Kol chased after skirts. Neither had been too sad about the loss of their parents but were happy they had a home and were a family once again.

Elijah snorted

"I'm sure he will be happy that we are happy. Although he might not appreciate your out-of-wedlock little bun of joy"

Rebekah's eyes bugged slightly and her hands were immediately placed on her protruding belly with tears staining her cheeks. Elijah signed realizing he had said the wrong thing. He immediately calmed her down inwardly chastising the Angel of Destiny for not warning them how magically turned to human for a year, pregnant, vampire women could be.

That was the present the Angel had presented Bella with five years earlier the day the latter had defeated and vanquished their father for good. A simple spell that would turn a vampire to a human for a full year. No one wanted to try it at first until Emmet had drank a bit by mistake, had human sex with Rosalie, transmitted it to her who in turn had been surprised by finding out she had also gotten pregnant. No one had bothered to say that human-vampire sex would also result with the vampire turning into human.

Kind of a three-in-one deal.

The next year had been hell on pretty much everyone as the moody and snappy Rosalie was even worse during her pregnancy until she popped out her baby girl name Joanne after the friend she had gone to visit the night she was changed.

"Shouldn't we get some kind of magical deal, like shorter pregnancy length?"

Human Emmett had confided in Bella once. She lad laughed and reminded him that real life wasn't a Sims game where a pregnancy lasts three days only. Yeah, Emmett had discovered Sims since and had decided to open a gaming facility filled with arcade games figuring he had to provide for his family as both Carlisle and Esme had died the same day Mikael did. His shop was full of people!

Edward and Rebekah, who had finally declared their feelings, had taken Rosalie's little girl for the duration of her parents transform back to vampire and by the time they gave her back (immediately after her parents' first feeding) they both had wanted a child of their own.

Edward wanted them to get married first and asked Elijah's permission. Elijah gave them his consent but reminded him that he should ask Klaus for Rebekah's hand. Rebekah reminded them both that Nik could, and probably would, tear him limp from limp and use him as firewood.

Edward gave in, took the potion, and the two were expecting their baby boy, named Henry after his long lost uncle who had been the beginning of all, just in time for Klaus to come back and be unable to do anything about his nephew.

Renee and Liz had spent the length of their pregnancies together, becoming fast friends with Charlie as he and Renee moving to Mystic when Liz decided to lessen the hours she worked not wanting her second child to be without her as much as Caroline had. Instead she and Charlie co-sheriffed the town with him breaking every speed limit the town had to rush both women to the hospital to give birth one day.

Both Liz and Renee had boys that were friends from the moment they shared a tiny bed in the hospital. Little Billy and Josh never wanted to be apart making Charlie warn Liz on the boys' first birthday party.

"If your pup imprints on my son, I will him"  
"And I will kill you"

The blond sheriff had replied making the brunette sheriff laugh and shake on it.

"Do you think you might want one of these?"

Jasper had asked Caroline on the boys' second birthday from his spot under the Christmas tree. She had looked down from her perch on the couch where she helped her little brother had ornaments and said

"I thought you'd never ask cowboy"

The senior year Miss Mystic Falls had replied laughing. They had gone straight to Bella to get vials of the potion and nine short months later Peter Whitlock had been born to the world.

Bella was lounging on a blanket her back flat against Damon's front watching her friends chat happily around.

"What are you thinking?"  
"How harmonious and beautiful this is"

She replied stroking her husbands palms. He laughed

"I have to admit, I never thought this would actually happen"

Bella's eyes followed his to the blanket where Josh and Billy were helping Giussepe, Stefan's son, and Richard, their son, build a castle with their blocks while Marie, their daughter, was showering them all with flowers using her magic publicly.

"You never thought you'd have children or that they would be so quiet?"

She joked lightly making him laugh and bite her slightly on the shoulder.

A year ago, right on their anniversary her waters had broken at the same time as Lexi's had. The house was on a magical lockdown and the babies had been delivered by Diana Salvatore. Damon and Stefan's mother who had only visited a few times as a ghost had taken temporary residence in order to get her grandchildren to be born passing them on her husband before she helped with Bella's second baby.

Ever since Jeremy had been accidentally shot and saved just barely escaping permanent damage since his brain had remained without oxygen for over 10 minutes, he had come clean about his ability to see ghosts.

The more children were produced by vampires-on-sabbatical, the more easy it was for ghosts to be visible to the point where Giuseppe Salvatore had had a long sit-down with his sons until the three worked out their differences and Diana was their usual babysitter.

All children were humans and would remain so until they wished to be turned, if they wished to be turned.

No Cullen was left. Emmett had returned to his human name McCarty, Jasper was back to being a Whitlock and Edward a Masen. Nothing but graves and memories remained to show the existence of Carlisle and Esme Cullen.

At twelve on the dot the sky gave a sudden lightning that had both Edward and Elijah on their feet, helping Rebekah stand as well.

At 12:01 in the middle of the gazebo Klaus was standing with a redhead Paige next to him.

At 12:02 he had blurred in front of his siblings, hugged them close, took in the human statues of his sister, noticed her pregnancy, her engagement ring, the nervous look on Edward's human green eyes and had broken his nose with a punch before dropping on his knees and introducing himself to the belly.

"Hello little one. I'm your cool uncle Nik. I don't know how you can exist but I will show you how to get chicks"

A head slap had him face planting on the belly

"Scratch that. I'll compel girls' fathers to definitely like you"

he finished. Paige smirked

"Much better, O husband of mine"

The dark blond vampire smiled pleased and wrapped an arm around the white lighter

"Something you'd like to tell us brother?"

Elijah smirked.

"Five years locked in a room alone. Do you need me to draw you pictures big brother?"

Another head slap from Henrik this time.

"Momma said to respect women, Nik"

Klaus' eyes bugged at the faintly transparent fourteen year old boy.

"Mystic Falls: The town where everything can happen"

**THE END**

**A/N**: Okay guys, this is the end as much as it pains me to say it. I want to thank you all for coming on this ride with me and I really hope you like my ending. Love you all!


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